


Safety-Pinned Cat Tail

by VeryNearly



Category: ASTRO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Car rides, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Kiss, Flirting, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, K-pop Cameos, M/M, Moonrock bromance, Ridiculously elaborate frat parties, Sanha is MJ's cousin, Slow Burn, now with art
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-01-22 07:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12476396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryNearly/pseuds/VeryNearly
Summary: Head of student union, Cha Eunwoo, gets roped into the largest halloween costume party on campus, and becomes determined to flirt with a cute boy dressed as a cat.High schooler Sanha gets in trouble, graduate student MJ gets way too drunk, and there's long car rides, gas station food, and it all takes place the day before Halloween.





	1. Look Him In The Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based off a dream I had, which is fitting for ASTRO lol. I've been feeling the Halloween spirit _real_ hard this year, thus this was created. I was originally planning for around 3 chapters, but as you can see it spiraled out of control. Hopefully the whole fic will be out before ~October 31st.

Eunwoo doesn't go to holiday parties. Eunwoo doesn't go to parties in general, but he would be damned if he didn't oversee every event he planned for the student body. If that event happened to be Fall Festival, so be it. And it Fall Festival happened to be in collaboration with the largest frat on campus… well, Eunwoo called that a matter of circumstance.

The agreement was that the fraternity would allow the student union to use their large fields, (that they technically owned,) to set up the hay maze and food stalls, and that the school would lend the frat free-reign of Cary Hall for “events.” On paper this was listed as “haunted house,” but as much as a cursory glance behind the vaguely spooky shack and decorations in the out front revealed an only marginally Halloween-themed rager going on behind it. Eunwoo wasn't too fond of it either, but the fraternity also provided money for free tours of the historical society building across the street, which was a major draw for non-students who came to Fall Festival.

The party was kept at arm’s length from the rest of the festivities, (“Student only,” the frat brothers would say to inquisitive parents,) and money the student union received from the other events was substantial enough for Eunwoo to turn a blind eye towards whatever party was going around in the first floor of Cary Hall, and the fact that a certain portion of the catering money was spent on booze.

Eunwoo was currently standing far from Cary Hall, by the student union booth. (The soccer team had wanted him to man their team booth too, as did the robotics club, but frankly Eunwoo was most proud of his involvement in student union.) It was set up by a haybale with lollipops stuck in it, stems first. The point was that kids could pick a lollipop out of the haybale, and if the lollipop had a black dot drawn on the bottom they could keep it. Of course, all the lollipops had a black dot on them, just to keep the kids happy while fooling them into thinking they won something.  

At the same time, it gave Eunwoo the opportunity to hand out pamphlets about the student union and to ask for donations, which were placed in a big water jug with a slit cut in the lid propped up on a flimsy event table. For thematic purposes, the jug was painted like a Jack-O-Lantern this time of of year, and had orange glowsticks inside of it to make it more eye-catching. Currently Eunwoo was leaning up against it trying to explain the student union’s current budget plan to some kid’s mom as her son carefully inspected each haybale lollipop behind them.

“...the rest of the money is then voted on by the school council to be saved for later years or donated to charity. Last year we donated $5,000 to a local non-profit that provided school supplies for youth from low-income families.” He omitted the part where the only reason why the $5,000 was in surplus in the first place was because the football team came down with a stomach virus and had to miss regionals, saving the budget thousands of dollars in bus fees.

“Wow, that's amazing.” The parent flipped through the complimentary pamphlet. “So who's the head of the student union exactly?”

“Student union is a democratically elected student body that functions as a complete unit, so we don’t have really have a ‘leader.’ ”

“Mr. President!”

“That's just a nickname,” Eunwoo said as a blonde girl he recognized from union meetings waved Eunwoo down. She tried to give a reassuring smile to the parent Eunwoo was engaged with, but when she looked back to Eunwoo her worry was unmistakable. She leaned up to whisper something to Eunwoo as he stepped away from the parent.

“What’s up?”

“Eunwoo, there's some kids loitering around the fire exit by Cary Hall, and they don't look like students,” she whispered into his ear. “What do we do?”

The Cary Hall fire exit was a fire exit that didn’t do it’s job very well. The door opened fine and would do its original purpose well, (that is, to be an exit,) but the alarm had been disconnected years ago. For the rest of the year the door was mostly ignored by students and staff, but during Fall Festival it acted as the unofficial entrance/exit for students looking to party without looking suspicious walking through the front door, or from traversing the wide, brightly lit, parking lot. Eunwoo worried his lip.

“What do they look like? Just kids?” he said lowly. She nodded. “They were wearing costumes. They’re pretty tall so they were mistaken as students at first, but we think they’re from the high school nearby.”

Eunwoo patted her on the shoulder. She blushed. “Thanks. I’ll go take care of it then if it’s just some high schoolers.” He gestured to the mom whose son was still scrutinizing the lollipop wrappers. “Can you take care of this parent for me?” She nodded quickly, blonde hair flopping up and down. He quickly thanked her as he made the way to Cary Hall.

It was only 9:20, but this time of year it the sun had already set. Eunwoo had been working since 6:00 P.M. when there was still a little daylight to work with, but by 7:30 the booths were set, the lights were on, and the sun was down. Likewise however, was the frat brothers driving up to Cary Hall after the school staff had all left, with pick-up trucks full of decorations and coolers full of you-know-what. They set up a spooky ticket shack draped in toilet paper out front, with “haunted house” tickets that were perpetually sold out, and filtered in an untold measure of streamers and soda in through the maintenance door. In three hours the building had transformed into six floor of neoclassical architecture, into five floors of neoclassical architecture and one floor of spooky halloween ambiance. Eunwoo was always amazed at what people could get done when they put their mind to it. Some windows, Eunwoo could see, were already lit up from the inside, with curtains closed but plastic pumpkins in the sill. Eunwoo bypassed the fake ticket booth and the jack-o-lanterns painted purple and orange to round the side of the building. Just like it was said, there were three figures loitering around the fire exit.

The three high school kids were probably waiting for some partied out kid to come out and smoke a joint or something, and then squeeze their way into the party afterwards. Eunwoo stalked over behind them to scare them off. He cleared his throat.

“Hey! High schoolers! What do you think you’re doing?” He put a hand on the shoulder of the closest teenager, the back of their head a light pink, and spun him around. The kid gasped when he made eye contact with Eunwoo. Eunwoo almost didn't recognize him with his shock of newly pinkish-white hair.   


“Sanha?” Sanha was a senior in high school, but to Eunwoo he still seemed like a baby middle schooler. Eunwoo had been tutoring Sanha in English for almost 5 years now, from when he was a high schooler to after he got accepted into university. Sanha had been hoping to get accepted to the same university as Eunwoo this year, and according to his mother, had fully occupied himself with preparing for the ACT. One look at him thought and it was obvious he also had other things on his mind though. He wore a devil horns headband, nestled between a fluff of his cotton-candy hair.

"Aw, Eunwoo,” the kid whined. “Come on, let it slide!”

“Sanha? What did you do to your hair? Does your mom know you're here?”    
  
Sanha’s two friends giggled behind him as Sanha flushed red. “Eunwoo!” he crossed his arms. “I’m not a child! I can drive myself now!”

“I thought you failed your driver's test?” Eunwoo said suspiciously. Sanha looked flustered as something clicked in Eunwoo’s head. “Sanha!” he said aghast. “Did you sneak out tonight? Did you  _ steal your mom’s car?” _ __  
  
“I was- I didn't-” Sanha stuttered. Eunwoo had already made up his mind though, and pointed at Sanha’s two friends.   
  
“You two go home right now or I’m calling campus security. Sanha, I’m driving you home.” Sanha sputtered, embarrassed, as one of his friends squinted at Eunwoo.    
  
“Hey lay off! Sanha can do what he wants, you're not his mom.”   
  
“I’m a mother adjacent,” Eunwoo snapped, turning to take in Sanha's two friends. He definitely didn't recognize them. When the girl on student union said they were “wearing costumes,” Eunwoo wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Whatever they were dressed as, he didn’t recognize. One of them has frazzled, burnt out-looking umber hair and six dots painted on his forehead. The other’s was a bizarre half-black half-blonde split right down the middle and wore a thin black choker around his neck. They didn't look like good role models, Eunwoo thought.

“You can't kick us out,” he said. He had a low voice for a high schooler. “We have permission to be here.”   
  
“From who?” Eunwoo help up a finger as the other one tried to talk. “And unless the answer is the dean himself it doesn't matter.” The taller one with the umber hair’s mouth snapped shut in indignation and scowled at Eunwoo. The blonde one took a step closer to the fire exit after seeing his friend’s more rational approach fail. “Don't you have something else to do? Like overseeing ‘bobbing for apples for herpes awareness’ or something?” he said, pointing a ringed finger at Eunwoo.

“Yes,” said Eunwoo not even denying it. “But I’m  _ also  _ in charge of making sure little underage kids like you aren't doing something dumb enough to get themselves arrested!” He hissed while also took a step closer to the fire exit, trying to block them off. The high schooler glared at Eunwoo. Eunwoo glared right back. \

Suddenly, the fire door burst open from the inside, interrupting Eunwoo’s staring contest, and casting the four of them in a blinding yellow light accompanied by the obnoxious halloween-themed music of the house party.

“Eun-woooooo” a very drunk, very familiar voice sing-songed.    
  
It was MJ, who had recently dyed his hair back to black after a brief stint as a redhead. He was a second year graduate student, and Eunwoo’s RA. They had become friends the first day of the semester when Eunwoo has accidentally walked into his dorm thinking it was his. Standing in the doorway of the fire escape, he was wearing a stereotypical slasher/doctor costume, with a smiley face over his face mask and fake blood all over his scrubs. He had lost his surgeon’s cap during the party, and was instead wearing a headband with dog ears on it. What the...

“Why don't you let the baby have his fun?” MJ said between giggles. MJ was a giggly drunk. His happy demeanor and his intimidating halloween costume, (sans the fluffy dog ears,) only made the situation more bizarre.

Eunwoo ran up to close the door but MJ stubbornly stuck his foot in the archway, letting party music leak outside unmuffled. “MJ! Close the door before someone hears!”   
  
MJ didn't seem to notice though, and turned his head to the high schoolers, his eyes desperately trying to focus on their faces. “Sanha! My little baby cousin, come here!” He stepped down onto the blacktop to hug him, leaving Eunwoo by the door, still holding the handle dumbfounded. What? Cousin?   
  
“Look at your little devil costume!” He said pinching Sanha’s devil horns. “So cute! Are these your buddies?” He leaned back to take in Sanha’s two friends were all smiles now; waving at MJ.

“This is Bobby and Minho.”

“Aww, so cute! What are you two?”

“This Minho, he’s dressed up as Krillin. I’m supposed to be XXXtentacion. He’s a rapper,” Bobby said, showing off his blonde-black part to MJ.

“Awww cute!” MJ giggled for the third time already.  “Well everything seems to be in ship-shape!” He stood to the side of the doorway. “Heeeere you go!” he said as he drunkenly ushered the three high schoolers into the fire exit door.

“W-Wait!” Eunwoo said going to grab the door as MJ began to close it. Sanha’s two friends gave Eunwoo the toothiest, most smug grins he had ever seen as they quickly disappeared into the crowd. Eunwoo fumed.

“Eunwoo? I thought you didn’t like parties,” said MJ confused.

“I don’t! I just- You! I don’t-” Eunwoo made sounds but no words as MJ nodded drunkenly.

“Okay then. Bye Mr. President~” MJ said while sloppily saluting Eunwoo. He was closing the fire escape when Eunwoo suddenly squeezed himself into the door and sealed it off behind him so no more music would leak out.

Eunwoo had been in student union since his freshman year and had co-hosted Fall Festival every year since then, but he had never been inside Cary Hall for the frat party before. In fact, he had never even been to  _ a _  party, barring the birthday party they threw for Michelle in robotics club. And now he was squeezed flush between the Cary Hall fire exit, the hidden staircase, and a potted plant cast in a weird orange light from the paper taped over the ceiling, craning his head looking for three teenagers who already ran off through the crowd of people.

He turned to MJ, furious. “What are you thinking? Bringing minors into the party? Do you know how much trouble you could get the union into with this? If their parents even suspect that-”

MJ placed a finger over Eunwoo’s mouth, sloppily shushing him. “Pshshhush-shuuu… Eunwoo… turn that frown…” he pulled a roll of stickers out of the front pocket of his scrubs, peeled off a smiley face, and slapped it on Eunwoo’s chest. “...upside down! Don't worry! I got permission!” Eunwoo slapped MJ’s hand away and resisted the urge to peel the sticker off his shirt too. “From who? From Sanha’s mom?” he asked incredulously.    
  
“Nope!” He said, popping the end of his sentence. “From one of the frat brothers! He said it was totally cool.”   
  
“The frat brothers? Which one? They’re in no position to OK that without me!” he shrieked.   
  
“Eunwoo, he said it was okaaaaayyy,”   
  
“It is not okay! I-” MJ suddenly lurched away from Eunwoo to throw up into the potted plant. He blearily looked back at Eunwoo’s now appalled face. “The frat brothers will clean that up.” MJ mumbled, more to the pot that to Eunwoo.   
  
“Ok,” Eunwoo said, going to grab MJ by the torso, “Where’s the elevators? We're going to find your cousin and his dumb friends and send them back home. Then we’re gonna give you whatever wheat-based products they’re serving at this party and a nice glass of water to help you sober up, and then we’re going to grab an elevator back up to the dorm.” Cary Hall wasn't just the college’s main hosting area; the upper floors of the building were upperclassman housing, the left wings for females and the right wings for males. Eunwoo and MJ lived on the 5th floor with a few other juniors and seniors who couldn't find housing off-campus.

“Eunwoo you’re over thinking it.” MJ said as he allowed himself to be manhandled by Eunwoo. “This type of thing happens all the time!”

Eunwoo turned to MJ sharply. “What sort of thing? The  _ underage drinking?” _

MJ shut his mouth. “Noooo…”

“Who told you that? What was their name?”

“Eunwoo, I really can't tell you.” MJ said giving him puppy dog eyes. Eunwoo sighed. It was going to be hard coaxing information out of drunk MJ… even moreso than sober MJ. Sober MJ was garbage at keeping secrets, but drunk MJ was a stone fortress. Eunwoo frowned.

“Whatever. Let’s drop you off to your room first, you’re way too drunk.”

~~~

Traversing Cary Hall was a bitch. Eunwoo had a great memory, and had come into Cary Hall once or twice last year for robotics competitions, but coupled with the loud spooky music, the garish Halloween decorations, crowds of people in costume standing around shoulder to shoulder,  _ and _  a drunk MJ; Eunwoo was really getting turned around. He made his way to the main staircase. Tall spirals of black and orange balloons made their way to the ceiling, with purple and green streamers twisting up and down the banisters and between the arms of the chandelier. Hanging from the streamers were a multitude of bats and colorful skeletons, with plastic spiders and cardboard cutouts of ghosts and mummies adorning the walls.

For a moment, Eunwoo didn’t worry about who was going to clean all that up and was just filled with complete awe the time that was put into decorating the first floor of Cary Hall for just one night. The dim lights really set the mood, complete with fake candle flickering on tables and furniture all over the room. Someone even brought a really realistic looking lamp post in the middle of the room, with a large jack-o-lantern stobbed on top with the frat’s greek letters carved into it.

MJ’s giggling knocked him out of his daze. “The decorations are really good huh? The frat puts so much effort into it.” He rearranged his headband which had started to fall off as he talked. “They did this all in three hours you know. Isn’t that unexpected?” He started cackling like he just cracked the best joke ever. When MJ laughed too hard he snorted and this time was no exception. Eunwoo rolled his eyes and patted him on the back. The decorations were fantastic, no doubt about it, but he definitely wasn’t feeling crowded spaces, as people constantly jostled and bumped into him. At a particularly rough bump, Eunwoo turned around, irritated, as a guy grabbed Eunwoo by the shoulder to steady himself.

“Oops sorry… hey what are you doing here without a costume?” It was one of the frat brothers. He was tall and strong, but had a young face. He was dressed like sexy army general or something, with a navy suit and medals pinned to his chest “You need a costume to get in, or else I have to kick you out.”   
  
Eunwoo knocked the frat brother’s hands off of him roughly, still holding MJ in his hands.

“I’m dressed as head of student union, so know your place freshie,” he snapped at him, pulling MJ back. MJ moaned at the sudden movement.

The “freshie” part was just a guess, but judging by the scared look on the kid’s face he was right. He was probably just some pledge saddled with doing menial tasks all night. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn't know.” Eunwoo felt a pang of guilt. This day was going terribly. All Eunwoo was supposed to do this evening was stand by a jug, collect donations, and make sure the booths were running properly. Eunwoo sighed, tired. He didn’t mean to lash out at the underclassman. “Me too. Look… just... where are the elevators? All the Halloween decorations got me turned around.”

The pledge pointed over in the general direction of the dance floor. “Past the two double doors, behind the bobbing for apples display. But you'll have to walk through the dance floor to get there. Also don't try bobbing for apples. I think we got the barrels from last year's herpes awareness fundraiser.”

Eunwoo rubbed his face. “Thanks.”

MJ groaned louder, making his presence known from under Eunwoo’s armpit. “Eunwoo, I don’t feel too good. I think I need to lay down.”

Eunwoo worriedly turned back to the freshman. “Is there a snack bar in the dance hall? Do you have water there?”

“Yes…but the bathrooms are over there if you need them.” He pointed in the opposite direction.

“No thanks, I already threw up,” groaned MJ.

"Okay then, hope you feel better. Wait what?”

The dance hall wasn’t hard to find at all, since it was just the lounge and the ballroom with the separator that was usually between them wheeled away. Plus, it was where the tacky music was the loudest. As the night went on, the DJ inevitably ran out of topical spooky music and just switched to whatever dull trap music was popular nowadays. It was only about about half past 9, so the music was currently a terrible remix of 90’s rap classics and ‘The Monster Mash.’

Eunwoo put MJ down on a couch covered in fake spiderwebs and then made a quick run to the snack table. It was being run by a guy in an Elsa costume, complete with the blonde wig and long glittery dress. To be honest he was kinda rocking it. He looked up when he saw Eunwoo come close but became uninterested as Eunwoo just grabbed a cup of water and then a diet soda for himself. Elsa had a hot plate on the table, and he was currently rolling green apples on a stick in a pot of caramel. It smelt good, but Eunwoo wasn’t that interested and he returned to MJ, drinks in hand. It was hard to believe MJ was 23 sometimes, especially now when he was curled up against a couch cushion shaped like frankenstein's monster's head and moaning like a child who spoiled his appetite.

“What are you supposed to be anyways?” Eunwoo asked as he held out the cup of water. “Just a bloody slasher doctor? Or is there like, some deeper meaning to this.” He gestured to MJ’s costume with the cup of water. MJ took the water out of Eunwoo’s hands, giving him the stink eye.

“Eunwoo don’t you know my biggest pet peeve is when people don’t know what you’re dressed up as for Halloween? You of all people should get this one!” he said between large drinks of water. Eunwoo looked him up and down again.

“Um… you’re a surgeon who got his medical license revoked? A cannibal with a doctorate?”

MJ sighed. “I’m a  _ happy virus _ , like my nickname. Remember?” He pulled the roll of smiley face stickers out of his pocket, peeling one off. “Looks like I’ll be needing another one of these for myself.”

Eunwoo let himself sit down next to MJ, finally letting himself rest for a moment. He had almost been standing all day now. Right, MJ used to be called happy virus. This was because of his contagiously genial personality, but he couldn’t remember anybody calling MJ “happy virus” recently. Eunwoo looked MJ up and down again. MJ was struggling to find a place on his scrubs without fake blood on it for his happy face sticker.

“That doesn’t explain the dog ears though.”

MJ made a face just as he decide to put the sticker on his shirt sleeve. “Dog ears? What-” he made a soft “oh,” and reached up to grab his headband, pulling it off.

“What did you not know how those got there or something?”

“No I knew. I just… forgot I guess,” he said holding the headband in his hands now. Eunwoo rolled his eyes.

“Well don’t throw up on them.” Eunwoo unscrewed the lid off his diet soda and took a drink as he looked into the crowd of dancing people, hoping to spot Sanha or one of his friends. The music had evolved into a psuedo-rock song with a jerky electronic sound to it. Eunwoo thought the music playing was undanceable, but as he looked into the crowd there seemed to be a few good dancers here and there making do with the beat. Right in the middle was a guy that seemed to be around Eunwoo’s height, dancing with a big, cute smile on his face. He wore a fishnet undershirt with long sleeves that revealed itself from under a black shirt with a short turtleneck collar. The whole thing fit around his torso tightly, clinging around his narrow hips snuggly. He had fluffy, jet black hair, and a headband with tiny black cat ears on it. When we wasn’t dancing, he just kinda waved his hips back and forth, but even that looked good, especially with his cute, black tail swaying between his legs, the fastened in place with a safety pin pinned to the area above his tailbone. Eunwoo’s eyes roamed over his body, checking him out from a distance.    
  
Being a cat for halloween was so typical, but somehow this guy made it look unique. Maybe because in a sea of dudes wearing crude and tacky costumes, he stuck out as a slinky cat in a sea of dick jokes, laughing on the dance floor. Or maybe it was just because he was just so good looking. His costume wasn't even that sexy; he was covered head to toe in black fabric. He just looked… really, really good. When Eunwoo got to his face and caught the boy’s laughing face, he melted.

Eunwoo couldn’t ever remember thinking those things about another guy before. He tried to check him out subtly as he could, until someone came up behind Mr. Sexy Cat and grabbed the end of his tail and loosely shook it, tugging gently against the back of his pants. Sexy Cat Guy wore long, form-fitting, black pants over his long, shapely legs. Eunwoo flushed in indignation as Sexy Cat Guy turned around, confused. Eunwoo took a swig of his diet soda, ready to go over and scold the other guy for harassing another student. He could kick him out of the party, swear to god, he would have to file an appeal with the- oh, Sexy Cat Guy seemed to know the other guy. His face broke out into a grin as he pulled Tail-Grabber into a hug. Eunwoo flushed at his presumptive thinking, and fell back into his seat, embarrassed. What was he thinking getting so worked up over a stranger? MJ giggled next to him, his head bobbing a little from the couch cushions shifting.    
  
Eunwoo looked down at MJ nursing his cup of water in his hands. “What?” he said, refusing to be embarrassed in front of a guy who just threw up in a flower pot.    
  
“Youuuu liiiike himmmm,” MJ drawled out, using his sing-songy voice for the second time today. Eunwoo cursed drunk MJ’s perceptiveness.

“Not now Myungjun,” he mumbled while still checking the guy out in his peripheral. His friend was now whispering something into his ear. Eunwoo would do anything to know what they were talking about. “That guy is… he's out of my league.”

MJ’s eyes locked onto Eunwoo’s, suddenly looked clearer than they did all evening. In fact, the last time he looked this attentive was six weeks ago when MJ finally understood retrograde motion in Astronomy Lab after two whole weeks of getting carried by his lab partner. “Eunwoo,” he said, suddenly sounding very serious. “Why do you think like that? That guy’s not out of your league, you’re out of his league! You’re in a league of your own Eunwoo! You're gonna graduate summa cum laude! You’re captain of the soccer team! You help little kids build robots, and most importantly,” he paused, either for dramatic effect or to keep his throw-up down. “You're super hot! I don’t know if anyone told you that before. But you are! You could get any guy, especially some ultra-sexy, black-haired, fishnet sleeve-wearing, nice butt-having-”

“-okay that’s enough-”

“-cat guy!” MJ finished. He put a hand on Eunwoo’s shoulder. “You are the alpha of all alpha nerds Eunwoo. You're the  _Alpha alpha!_  You could have your pick of the guys, and you picked  _ that guy  _ Eunwoo. Good choice by the way.” Eunwoo flushed at MJ’s words, but somehow felt himself gaining more and more confidence the longer MJ talked. He was going to go over to him, strike up a normal conversation,  _flirt,_  and then maybe get his number. He smiled at the thought, now brimming with excitement.

“You like that guy right?” MJ said, slowly getting louder with each word. Eunwoo nodded, only feeling a little embarrassed. “You like him!” crowed MJ. “So get out there, get his attention, look him in the eyes, grab his hands and  _ fuck him!” _ __  
  
“Woah woah woah woah!” screamed Eunwoo, slapping his hands over MJ’s mouth. “Why did you go there! I wasn't even thinking of- what? Why?”   
  
MJ looked sad and confused at being yelled at. “Is that not where we were going here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extra author's notes:  
> \- In my original dream, Cary Hall was 30 floors tall  
> \- Cary Hall is a half baked attempt at a college building name. It's a pun on "Scary."  
> \- Sanha was added into the fic from scratch. I chose Bobby and Mino as his friends because they seemed like two hip-hoppish guys that would (at first glance) seem like a bad influence on baby Sanha  
> \- In the original dream, MJ was actually someone I know in my personal life. I switched her with MJ because it made more sense (obiviously) but if he seems out of character, that's why


	2. Drunk MJ’s Flirting Tips™

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “But he’s dancing right now, I can’t interrupt his dancing time. He’ll probably resent me for messing up his rhythm or something.”
> 
> MJ thought for another second and then nodded. “Probably.” He went back to staring into his cup of water, the bobbing of his head reminding Eunwoo that while his friend just rattled off some fundamentally-sound flirting tips, he was also currently wasted, throwing all this advice he just gave Eunwoo under scrutiny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my formatting is better in this chapter, my italics were kinda wonky in Chapter 1.  
> Disclaimer, I’ve only used Drunk MJ’s Flirting Tips™ once in real life but it worked. I wouldn’t recommend it though, I’m not an expert.

MJ looked sad and confused at being yelled at. “Is that not where we were going here?”

“No! Yes! I mean, no!” Eunwoo rubbed his face vigorously, his nerves acting up again. He wasn’t sure what he wanted long term, but he was determined to do this. He took a deep breath, eyeing sexy cat guy from across the room, just as he disappeared from view, his headband bobbing away behind a throng of people. 

Eunwoo just needed to approach this like any other problem. Make a strategy and execute it one by one. Eunwoo closed his eyes and brainstormed. “I need a blasé opener to get him to start up a conversation, but not one that makes it seem although I’ve been following him all night hoping to talk to him.”

MJ brightened up upon hearing Eunwoo’s commitment to plan. “That’s the spirit Eunwoo!” he already began to push Eunwoo out of his seat. “Get out there!”

Eunwoo squeaked. “Wait, wait, wait! I need some pointers first!” he said gluing himself back into the chair. “What if I forget what to say?”

MJ looked at him flatly. “Eunwoo. That’s ele-men-tary. Look, here’s my tried and true flirting tips, cultivated from years of trial and error.” He stuck out his index finger. “Number 1, compliment their something. It’s a costume party. Tell him you like his costume. Number 2, ask for his name,” he paused waving his hand for emphasis. “Mandatory second compliment goes here. Number 3, complain about something. Complain about the music playing or hard classes, whatever. It doesn’t matter.” Eunwoo wrinkled his nose at that step.

“Complain? But I would have just met him. Isn’t that a little early?”

MJ pointed his three extended fingers at Eunwoo now. “No! It’s _never_ too early to complain! In fact, it is essential to the flow of conversation! When you complain about something, it’s the perfect, unintrusive segue into uncovering things that they _like!_ Hopefully then there’s some overlap, in which you then bond over shared interests.”

“Can’t I just do that first?”

“Sure… if you want to be forgotten in five minutes. Trust me, complaining is way more memorable _and_ they’ll remember what you _do_ like afterwards.”

Eunwoo nodded then, unsure, but willing to listen as MJ rattled off more tips. “You gotta have these points on lock. BUT! You must always go _forward_ in the list, not backwards. Asking for their name twice, complimenting them too much; it looks insincere. So don’t do it Eunwoo! ONE opening complement, ONE name complement. Anymore and you’ll drown him.”

Eunwoo went over the tips in his head. Complement, ask for name, then complain to find common ground. He frowned at a perceived flaw in the plan.

“What if there’s no overlap in the things we like?”

MJ thought for a second. “Then lie,” MJ said simply. Eunwoo frowned. It was unlike him to lie about anything at all, but if it was for a good cause, (which it was, he assured himself,) he would do it. He looked back into the crowd of dancing people, looking for a pair of cat ears.

“But he’s dancing right now, I can’t interrupt his dancing time. He’ll probably resent me for messing up his rhythm of something.”

MJ thought for another second and then nodded. “Probably.” He went back to staring into his cup of water, the bobbing of his head reminding Eunwoo that while his friend just rattled off some fundamentally-sound flirting tips, he was also currently wasted, throwing all this advice he just gave Eunwoo under scrutiny.

Eunwoo looked around for the cat guy, spotting him now standing against the wall talking to someone shorter than him who was obstructed from view. His tail was still swaying back and forth to the music. If Eunwoo was going to flirt, he had to do it now before another more skilled flirter got to him first. He scanned the lounge, eyes landing on the snack bar. The guy there had just finished coating all his candy apples, placing them sticks up on a plate, wafting the smell of caramel and cinnamon into the dance floor. Eunwoo got a great idea as got up to go stand by them. Before he left completely, MJ grabbed his arm.

 “Here,” MJ took his dog ears and put them on Eunwoo. “In case someone tries to throw you out again.” Eunwoo smiled, touched. He wanted to make sure MJ would be fine, but at the same time he selfishly wanted to get closer to sexy cat guy. He glanced back at MJ nervously. “Will you be okay sitting here?”

“Yeah man, totally. Just do out there and do it okay?” MJ had the biggest, shit-eating smile on his face. Eunwoo rolled his eyes, but found himself smiling anyways.

“Thanks MJ. I’ll be back in a second. Remember to hydrate.”

“Take your time!” MJ called after his retreating back. 

As Eunwoo got close to the snack bar, the guy dressed as Elsa was just putting the hot plate away. Eunwoo belatedly realized it had been stolen from the Chem I lab.  

He squinted as Eunwoo got close. “Wait a second... Hey, Mr. President!” he said now recognizing Eunwoo. “I’m surprised to see you here. Did you want a candy apple?” 

They were pretty rudimentary candied apples. Granny Smiths dipped in caramel, some sloppily drizzled with chocolate. Eunwoo frankly didn’t like food that were too sticky, but he couldn’t deny they smelt good. “If you want one you should just grab it,” Elsa said “They get snatched up really fast.”

Eunwoo nodded and unthinkingly picked up an apple by the stick. Standing to the side of the table, he held the apple, spinning it in his hand making sure not to get his hands sticky. Did he look weird holding an apple and not eating it?

Candy apples indeed started disappearing left and right until Eunwoo was holding the last one. He peeked out into the crowd. Cat guy wasn’t coming up for food? Who didn’t want to eat? Everyone came to the snack bar at least once. Maybe he ate already and was full. He looked at the apple in his hands. What was he going to do with this now?

“Are you going to eat that?” someone asked him.

Eunwoo turned around, holding out the apple. “No, you can have it-”

It was cat guy, hand gingerly extended towards Eunwoo. Eunwoo dumbly handed it over to him, their fingers brushing slightly.

“Thank you!” he beamed taking the apple. He turned it in the red lights, and laughed nervously. “I never had a candy apple before.” He remarked. He had a soft accent. Eunwoo hadn't expected it, but upon hearing it, it fit him perfectly.

Eunwoo flashed a frantic glance in MJ’s direction for strength. Eunwoo didn’t even have to approach the guy, _he_ came to him. “I like your costume,” Eunwoo said, dispatching _Drunk MJ’s Flirting Tips™_ Step One, struggling to keep his voice even.

The boy had lifted the apple to his mouth about to take a bite just as Eunwoo slid his compliment at him. It was bad timing, Eunwoo noted, but the guy just smiled. “Thank you!” he said brightly. The boy lifted a hand to his forehead, fingers curled like a cat’s paw. “Meow! Hahaha,” he laughed, eyes crinkling as he did so. His smile was blinding. Eunwoo struggled to remember his next talking point under the intensity of that smile. Right! Ask for his name. Eunwoo plastered his best “mom-smile” on his face and turned back to the boy, but before any words could come out he realized the other guy was already talking. Oh my god he was talking. How was he not paying attention? Oh my god, he's still saying words! Eunwoo felt his nerves rise up again. He blew it!

No! No, he could save this, he could salvage this. He took a deep breath and touched the boy’s fishnet sleeves, awkwardly interrupting the his word vomit. He looked down at Eunwoo curiously. Eunwoo opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. Could you say that again?”

Eunwoo was ready to bail out of this conversation right now, _right_ right now. His hold on the boy’s sleeve was the only thing keeping him in place. His second sentence he ever said to this guy sounded like he was asking his professor for clarification during lecture. He was beyond embarrassed, why did he think he could flirt without practicing on someone else first? He should’ve asked MJ to let him run some lines on him first, no matter how drunk he was.

However, by some miracle the other guy didn’t look embarrassed. He leaned in closer to Eunwoo and said louder, as if Eunwoo didn’t hear him over the music. “I said I like your costume too!” He gestured to his cat ears and then to Eunwoo’s borrowed dog ears “We match!” he said brightly.

“This is actually-” he cut himself off before he could get go on a tangent. “This is actually puppy ears,” he said instead.

“They’re so cute! Can I?” he said, hand hovering over Eunwoo’s forehead.

“Oh, uh, go ahead.” MJ probably wouldn’t mind, he thought to himself as Eunwoo leaned forward to give the handsome stranger better access. Just to make sure, he flashed a glance in MJ’s direction. MJ was excitedly waving two “thumbs-up”s to him. Eunwoo grimaced a bit, hoping no one saw that. Nonetheless, he still felt pretty giddy as the boy gently detatched the headband from Eunwoo’s hair. When he looked back up, he saw the boy fitting his black cat ears and MJ’s dog ears over his head at the same time.

“My nickname back in Korea was _meong-nyang-i._ That’s kind of like ‘puppy-kitty.’ ”

Eunwoo didn’t know whether to focus on how adorable that was or to celebrate the perfect segue he had into the next _Drunk MJ’s Flirting Tip_ ™. “What’s your real name?” he said, hoping this was imitating the flow of natural conversation.

“Moonbin!” he laughed over the party music.

“Moonbin?”

“First name Bin, Last name Moon.”

“I like your name. It’s- um- neat.”

“Thank you! What’s yours?”

“Eunwoo Cha. First name Eunwoo, last name Cha.”

“Cha Eunwoo! Are you Korean too?” Eunwoo nodded and allowed a delighted expression to pass over Moonbin’s face. He clapped like a seal. “I thought so! I’m from Cheongju.” He rattled off a sentence in Korean that embarrassingly Eunwoo didn’t understand. Despite his parents speaking Korean, he was one of the disappointing second generation immigrants who hadn’t picked up the language while growing up. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but he honestly had no time for language class between managing student union, soccer team, robotics, and his piano hobby. If anything, his Korean level was remedial. Moonbin seemed to notice, and gave him a sheepish smile.

Eunwoo tried to brush that off and frantically racked his brain for his talking point. He didn’t know anything about Cheongju or Chungbuk. What was MJ’s next flirting tip™? Complain? Wasn’t it a bit early in the conversation to complain? Eunwoo snuck a glance at Moonbin’s smiling face again. What if this guy wasn’t that perceptive to complaining? Happy, giggly types- wouldn’t they be turned off by a debbie downer like Eunwoo? After all, what worked for MJ didn’t mean it would work for Eunwoo too.

He needed a different talking point. Looked down, he spotted the candied apple in Moonbin’s hand. It had cooled down now, but Eunwoo could still smell the cinnamon and caramel coating it.

“Do you… like apples?” he asked. In the corner of his eyes, he thought he could see MJ dying. Moonbin looked at the apple too, as if he had forgotten he was holding it.

“Oh, right.” Moonbin took a bite of the apple, getting sticky caramel on his chin. He chewed thoughtfully. He took another bite. And another.

He had a fond smile on his face, but it was directed at his food. “Mmmmm, this is so good,” he purred happily. Oh my god Eunwoo was going to upstaged by food. He shot a panicked look to Myungjun now, who unsympathetically shrugged and Moonbin continued eating. What should he do? Should he leave now? He shuffled in place a bit. 

Flashing back to Moonbin’s face now, intending to say a few parting words before making his exit, he accidentally made eye contact with a person walking up behind him. It was the guy Eunwoo has seen earlier, who had pulled Moonbin’s tail. He was a little shorter than Moonbin, with ashy, silvery hair and sharp, angular eyes. He was wearing gray pants and a gray shirt.

He had a weird expression as he came up behind Moonbin, putting a hand on his shoulder.  
  
Moonbin jumped when he felt his hand, but relaxed when he saw him. “Oh hey!” He showed the apple to him. “Look at this, this is so good,” he said with a mouthful of food.  

His friend frowned. “뭐해요?” he said in an odd tone while eyeing Eunwoo to the side, as if gauging if Eunwoo could understand him or not. “네가 한 말 기억있어요?” Moonbin swallowed his mouthful of food.  
  
“라키아, 왜그래… 그러지마,” he whined to his friend. Eunwoo listened intently, trying to understand as much as he could, but the most he could pick up was what he thought was the other guy’s name.

His friend frowned, looking down at Moonbin’s apple. “Give that to me,” he said now in English. Moonbin sulkily passed the apple to his friend. His buddy snuck a very unsneaky look at Eunwoo again, weighing his options before turning to hiss quietly in Korean to Moonbin. “너 믿을 수 없어요 문빈형.”

While he was speaking very quickly, Eunwoo found himself recognizing some words. “넌 그를 공황게 너의 _dumb food love_ 로 할거야. 너 _hot apple guy_ 로 _flirt_ 거라고 했잖아요, 너  _said-_ ”

Eunwoo gasped quietly at his sudden comprehension. Eunwoo didn’t have a full understanding of what was just said, but he was reasonably sure Moonbin thought he was hot. Moonbin and his friend’s heads snapped back in place, Moonbin’s two headbands wiggling slighting in place, his face now flushing. His friend’s eyes flashed back and forth between him and Eunwoo worriedly.

“...Do you want to get some punch?” Moonbin piefaced his friend away, pushing him back into the crowd. To his credit, he graciously disappeared as Moonbin turn his full attention back to Eunwoo.

“Yes! Yes that sounds great!” Moonbin said.

Eunwoo smiled, feeling confident now. “Great. Wait right here, and I’ll be back with two cups.” Moonbin nodded, now standing in place like a dog being told to sit. Eunwoo held back the urge to squish his cheeks, instead biting the inside of his own to hold back a squeak. Moonbin was seriously cute.

All the alcoholic drinks were kept on the opposite side of the building; he had seen it when he and MJ were lost earlier. Eunwoo smiled to himself as he squeezed his way through the same throng of people, expect this time he had feeling on top of the world. He had just met Moonbin, but he liked everything about him already, and Moonbin seemed to like him too.

He carefully stepped down into the den where drinks were being sold. The area was much dimmer, lit up mostly by fake candles flickering purplish and green flames and a few UV lamps. He scooted his way up to the drink table, some of drinks even faintly glowing, and tried to tell if all the cups had alcohol in them. Probably, he noted with a frown. He was trying to avoid drinking tonight. He thought for a second. Wait, was Moonbin even of legal drinking age? He didn’t even ask. He didn’t remember seeing a black X on the back of his hand, but he wasn’t exactly looking for it either. Eunwoo picked up two cups of punch that smelt like they had the least amount alcohol in them.

“Hey, you don’t have a costume!” someone yelled at him. A big hand grabbed Eunwoo by the shoulder and spun him around, spilling bright red punch in an arc staining Eunwoo’s white shirt and splattering dozens of party goers, even hitting some guy who had unluckily just walked out of the bathroom. Eunwoo looked down at his ruined shirt and back up to the perpetrator in shock. The other guy’s eyes were unfocused and dilated as he looked down at the red dye all over their clothes.

“Oops.”

“What... is _your problem?”_ someone yelled. The guy who got splattered walking out of the bathroom stormed forwards and tried to grab the other guy by the front of his shirt, but was too short. 

He had mousy, tan hair, but was wearing the most intricate Halloween costume Eunwoo had seen all night: a well fitted purple suit with lilac stripes and crossbones and an inner shirt, now splattered with dark spots, that glowed in the UV light. His face was made up like a sugar skull, but despite all the white face paint, a very pronounced beauty mark on his chin was still visible, now along with flecks of red juice. Eunwoo quickly slunk off into the crowd trying to wipe off his shirt as a scene unfolded between stoned guy and bathroom guy. Eunwoo slipped away into the bathroom with a couple annoyed girls.

It only took one glance to tell that Eunwoo’s shirt was ruined. He at least tried to pat it dry. The sticky texture on his skin felt terrible. One of the girls sympathetically watched as Eunwoo tried to clean himself as she rubbed water into a spot in her costume. “Ooh, that looks bad,” she said.

Inspecting the stain, the girls one by one made similarly disappointed sounds. “Do you live close by?” one of the girls said. “You can go change.”

“I do, but there’s this guy who’s waiting for me right now.” said Eunwoo. The girls exchanged looks, and started giggling. Eunwoo flushed as a girl dressed as a bumblebee inspected his shirt closer.

“It should come out when you wash it, Jinjin usually makes sure the drinks aren’t permanently staining.”

Eunwoo nodded, but didn’t exactly feel better. “Who’s Jinjin?”

“He was the guy back there with the purple suit,” said a girl. She turned her head back and forth in the mirror, checking her angles.

“I thought he was going to be a dog for Halloween this year,” of the the girls said to another, their train of conversation already moving away from Eunwoo’s shirt. “He had bought the costume and stuff already, but changed his mind like, last minute.”

“Really? Why would he change his mind? That would be so perfect! Gang-a-jinjin!” a girl squealed. ‘Puppy-Jinjin’ she had said. It must’ve been that guy’s nickname. Eunwoo snuck back out the bathroom door as the girls tittered about how cute that would’ve been. He looked at the punch cups. Should he still get some? How embarrassing would it be if he went back to Moonbin carrying two cups of punch with this huge stain on his shirt? It would look like he had spilt it on himself.

“Hey, I thought you left,” someone said. He felt a strong hand tap his upper arm. He took a deep breath and put a smile on his face expecting Moonbin, but instead came face to face with a head of silvery hair. It was Moonbin's friend.  
  
“Oh, um, Rocky?” Rocky had an odd look on his face, looking him up and down, eyes zeroing in on Eunwoo’s punch stain but didn’t mention it.

“Minhyuk actually.”  
  
“Really? I thought I heard-”  
  
“Do you like Moonbin?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rocky and Moonbin are international students. That may seem a little odd when the rest of Astro aren’t, but it was kinda a talking point in my dream and played a little part in the plot, so I couldn’t change it. I usually don't like squeezing different languages in one fic, I think my high school English teacher said to never do that? However I couldn't think of a work around. I still think it read kinda awkward but I can't think of anything to change to it anymore. 
> 
> QUICK PSA, If my Korean is wrong when Rocky and Moonbin are talking, please help me fix it :'( Basically, Rocky told Moonbin that 'he was going to scare Eunwoo away with his love of food,' and reminded him that Moonbin had 'said he was going to try to flirt with Eunwoo' earlier. I don't know if I used to most appropriate word for "scared" though. What's the Korean equivalent of "to drive away"? Ah, please be kind to me, the nested sentence structure drives me crazy.


	3. The Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my chapter title's really clever for some reason. Anyways, from halfway through this chapter and onwards it’s _all_ my imagination. Get ready for pure unfiltered VeryNearly, lol
> 
> ALSO FOR REFERENCE: Moonbin in a sweater aaaaahttps://twitter.com/offclmb/status/924753530258378752

Eunwoo sputtered, his cool guy facade that he’d been wearing for the past 25 minutes quickly sliding off his face from behind called out so abruptly by Minhyuk. 

“I- you-” Eunwoo clammed up- his go-to defense mechanism- under Minhyuk’s scrutiny. He had a rather intimidating facial expression on to begin with, but it softened at Eunwoo’s flustered reaction. Minhyuk sighed and looked over his shoulder nervously.  It was obvious he wasn’t comfortable or familiar with doing this. 

He squinted at Eunwoo. “I’m just saying this as nicely as possible, but if you don’t _ actually like _ Bin I suggest you back off.” Minhyuk had a slight accent too, it was just less noticeable than Moonbin’s. “He really doesn’t need more disappointment in his life, so if you’re just here to flirt- don’t.”

Eunwoo nodded quickly. Minhyuk looked down his nose at Eunwoo, which was hard to do when he was a little shorter than him, but Minhyuk managed by tilting his head slightly backwards. Minhyuk eyed up Eunwoo’s punch stain again. “What was taking you so long anyways? A punch stain? Just give that to me,” he said taking the cups of punch from Eunwoo’s hands. Eunwoo handed one cup over willingly, but when Rocky went to grab the second one he paused.

“Wait… how old are you?”

“Dude, forget about it!” Minhyuk said annoyed and pulled the cup from Eunwoo’s grasp. The punch sloshed around, but Minhyuk had more luck than Eunwoo and didn’t get any on his clothes. Minhyuk turned around to set the cups on a table, careful not to spill them on his shirt: a very plain, dark gray button up, with a faint, dark green pattern all over it. The first few buttons have come undone, revealing an equally plain, gray undershirt. Eunwoo gasped and grabbed Minhyuk’s sleeve. 

He turned around confused. “What?”

“You’re wearing an undershirt right? Let me borrow your button up.”

Minhyuk pulled his arm away. “No!” 

“No one will notice, really! You’ll look fine without it.”

“Moonbin will notice,” Minhyuk said in a tone that allowed no arguments. “I can’t let Moonbin know I went looking for you!” He straightened his shirt out. “Look don’t even worry about your punch stain, Bin spills food on himself all the time. It’s really not a big deal.”   


Eunwoo tugged on Minhyuk’s shirt more insistently. “It’s not just ego okay? I have a reputation to protect too. I’m head of student union, people will recognize me out there! It’s already weird enough that I’m in the party in the first place!”

Minhyuk stepped back from Eunwoo, looking at him as if he was seeing him in a new light. “You’re student council president?”

Eunwoo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “It’s not ‘student council,’ student council is for high schoolers. I’m in  _ student union _ , and we don’t have a president.” Minhyuk had a weird expression on his face now. Eunwoo scrunched up his nose.

“What? It’s not like I’m going to turn you in for being here, I’m at the party too you know.”

“Do  _ not  _ tell Moonbin that okay?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t tell Moonbin that you’re in student union.”

“Why not?”

“Just  _ don’t  _ okay? Here just take the punch and go,” he said, grabbing two new cups of punch and handing them off to Eunwoo. Eunwoo took them automatically. He and Minhyuk looked at each other awkwardly for a second. 

“Go!” said Minhyuk, sounding annoyed now. Eunwoo took a few steps away. When he looked back at Minhyuk, he was expecting a glare, or an “I’m-watching-you” look, but instead Minhyuk was looking off to the side, arms folded. Despite his sharp edges, his demeanour gave away his nervousness.

Minhyuk looking nervous made Eunwoo nervous. Why would Minhyuk ask Eunwoo to conceal his involvement in student union? Had student union personally wronged Moonbin before? Or if not, did Minhyuk know some that Moonbin was incompatible with studious types like Eunwoo? If that was true, was this whole thing headed for disaster? 

In addition, ignoring the reason  _ why  _ Minhyuk might’ve asked him to skim over his position, could Eunwoo even afford to hide his academic accolades with Moonbin? Without his extracurriculars, did Eunwoo even have enough personality to keep a bubbly person like Moonbin interested in him?

Eunwoo was worrying too much. He needed a pep talk again. Peeking his head into the lounge, he looked back and forth for MJ. He looked across to the couches for him, but to his surprise MJ wasn’t there. Did he leave? Eunwoo looked back and forth, a little panicked now. MJ was pretty drunk last time they talked, but he wouldn’t leave like that without at  _ least _ texting Eunwoo first. Right? 

Back across the room, Eunwoo noticed Moonbin loitering by the snack table, looking at the dance floor as if thinking about going back. Eunwoo panicked, quickly working up the nerve to run over and greet Moonbin, but he was only two steps on when someone grabbed him by the back of the shirt, sloshing his drinks around again. Eunwoo spun around angrily. If it was another dumb frat brother asking him why he wasn’t wearing a costume he was going to pour his alcoholic drinks down their eye sockets. But instead of a loud confrontation he felt someone’s forehead slide down his back, arms coming around to hug him.

“MJ?” Eunwoo said, just as Moonbin disappointingly disappeared back into the crowd. Sure enough, that head of black hair pressed up against his back belonged to MJ. Eunwoo’s eyes were still preoccupied with searching for Moonbin’s cat/dog ear combo.

MJ let out a sad moan. “Ohhh this day is ruined…” Eunwoo felt his mom-friend instincts kiking in as he paused his search for Moonbin. He slid down into a nearby chair as MJ who burrowed his face into Eunwoo. Eunwoo patted his back with his cup of juice, silently hoping MJ wouldn't throw up on him.   
  
“What happened? Did you remember we have a Physics III exam tomorrow?”   
he joked, trying to cheer him up.

“We do?”   
  
“No, haha.”   
  
“Oh.” MJ sunk deeper into Eunwoo’s chest, not even sounding that relieved. Eunwoo caught a waft of something as MJ groaned.

“Myungjun! Have you been drinking? Like, drinking  _ more?” _

“No! No I’m not that dumb.” He groaned. “It’s just all hitting me now.” Eunwoo frowned- not sure if he believed him- but tried to turn his full attention to MJ nonetheless.

“MJ what’s wrong? Why weren’t you sitting where I left you earlier?”

MJ wiped his forehead of his drunk sweat with the back of his head. He spoke to Eunwoo lowly, but skittery. “Eunwoo remember that guy? That guy we met at the amusement park last spring?”

“Ugh. Yeah.” Eunwoo rolled his eyes. He had sat with MJ on one roller coaster ride and thought they were dating. MJ had just gotten out of a long term relationship at the time, and had been feeling squishy so he didn’t shut him down. 

Eunwoo had met him briefly, he seemed normal at first, but after he cajoled MJ into giving him his number, he had been texting him nonstop. MJ had blocked shortly afterwards. Eunwoo set the cups of punch he got for him and Moonbin on a the ground. “Did you see him here?”

MJ sadly whimpered the affirmative. Eunwoo patted him on the back, eager to fix up this problem for MJ and then get back to finding Moonbin. “I’ll just get one of the frat brothers to kick him out then. I just saw this guy in a purple suit on my way to the punch bowl-”

MJ wailed harder. “No!” He cried out, head shooting up to grab at Eunwoo’s shirt front. “No! No you can’t get a frat brother!”

“MJ!” said Eunwoo surprised. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“I just- I don’t feel too good anymore, I think I should go...” he said clinging to Eunwoo. He tried to stand up on wobbly deer legs but fell back into the couch. “Ugugh, Eunwoo, piggy-back me.” Eunwoo hunched down, ready to grab MJ again, when he hesitated. He still hadn’t found Moonbin. What if Moonbin saw him piggybacking MJ and got the wrong idea? MJ was looking up at Eunwoo confused. “Eunwoo? What are you-” his eyes suddenly fixated on something behind Eunwoo.

“Myungjun?”

Eunwoo turned around, coming face to face with some guy that clicked some faint memory in his head. He had thick, slanted eyebrows, dark hair, and was now looking at Eunwoo disdainfully. Eunwoo let his arms drop to his sides.

“Oh… hi… Michael…?”

Eyebrow guy grinned toothily. Eunwoo couldn’t help but think he had too much teeth. “Heyyy I thought so! Myungjun! Hey, I thought I saw you here, what are the chances right?”

Not low enough, apparently. “I almost didn’t recognize you with your weird doctor costume on. What are you doing at this nerd school huh?” he said leaning down to talk to MJ, trying to angle Eunwoo out of the conversation with his body.

“Uhhhh,” MJ said. He tried to make eye contact with Eunwoo but was failing.

“Nevermind. Cool party right?”

“Y-yeah, the guys spent a long time decorating the place.” MJ said, being polite.

“I guess. A party’s a party right? Can I sit here?” he said gesturing to what used to be Eunwoo’s seat.

“Yeah, okay,” he said slowly. Eunwoo seethed at MJ’s demure demeanour. He needed to tell this guy to back off, like, right now. Eyebrows began to push Eunwoo aside when Eunwoo muscled his way between MJ and Eyebrows.

“Hey, Michael, hope you’re enjoying the party. I’m MJ’s friend, it’s really cool to meet you, but we were actually just leaving, MJ’s not feeling too good,” he said, shuffling the truth in a large handful of lies. Michael tilted his head down at Eunwoo’s shirt and made a smug sounding exhale. Eunwoo tried not to think about what he looked like with his sloppy red stain right now.

“What happened to you?”

“It’s nothing. Accidents happen.”

Michael laughed and nudged MJ who gave a polite sounding “heh.” He pointed at Eunwoo. “Don’t you need a costume to get in here? What are you supposed to be? A sloppy drunk?” Eunwoo felt his face heat up, and pushed the drinks he got for him and Moonbin further under the chair with this heel as Michael kept attempting to chat up MJ.

“We need to totally catch up. Hey do you wanna dab?”

“Like, the dance move?” MJ said.

Eunwoo cut in firmly. “Dude, what are you thinking? MJ’s clearly drunk okay? That’s obvious. He doesn’t need THC in his body.”

“Dude, piss off. You’re seriously not wanted here and you’re getting on my nerves.” He went to put a hand on MJ but Eunwoo impulsively slapped it off.

“Leave him alone!”

He stood up, seething. He glared at Eunwoo for a second, but then quickly turned to MJ, crowding into him. MJ leaned backwards. “Wouldn’t you rather hang with me than what’s-his-name?” he said to MJ.

Eunwoo stepped forwards, took both his hands and placed them on Michael’s chest and pushed him back as hard as he could, shoving him back into a decorative pedastal, and put himself between him and MJ. Frustrations that had built up all day suddenly bubbled up inside of him, but not in the form of his usual hair-wracking stress, but instead in the form of barely contained anger. He pointed his finger between Michael’s eyes and hissed “Actually, no. MJ  _ wouldn’t  _ rather hang with you instead of me, MJ doesn’t want to talk to you, MJ doesn’t want you to sit there, and he definitely doesn’t even remember your name because he  _ always  _ guesses Michael. You’re not special, you’re not memorable, and you have absolutely no redeeming qualities. You’re nothing but an uninspired NEET who gets his kicks from chatting up drunk guys and getting high, so fucking piss off. If you’re so sick of being at this nerd school I suggest you leave  _ right now _ because I can do so much more than just getting you blacklisted from frat parties.”

Eunwoo was afraid he was going to get hit for a second as he and Michael glared at each other, but Eunwoo puffed his chest out and to his pleasure realized he was maybe a centimeter taller than him.

“What the  _ fuck  _ is going on here?” someone yelled. Standing off to the side was the frat brother dressed as Elsa that Eunwoo had seen at the snack bar a while ago. He was holding a bowl of apples and was staring at the three of them, eyes passing between each one before his eyes came to rest on MJ. “MJ? Is that you? What are you doing with Mr. President? Who’s this guy? What the fuck is happening?”

MJ hesitated, but pointed to Michael. “This guy is…” MJ was seriously struggling with his word choice. “He’s…”

“He’s some creep from the next town over or something.” Eunwoo finished. “He’s being a total dick.”

“I’m not, I’m MJ’s friend, I’m not creepy.” Michael quickly insisted. Elsa moved closer to Michael, hand out as if to grab him. He looked at MJ again. “Do you know this guy? Or is be being a total dick?” MJ looked around nervously, but locking eyes with Elsa-guy he nodded.

“Um, yes. Both.”

“Okay… do you want me to get J-”

“No! No, no, no, Hongbin- Hongbin don’t tell anyone! Don’t tell the other guys in the frat!” MJ suddenly said, blurting out more words in two seconds than he had in the past 20 minutes. Hongbin looked taken aback at MJ’s outburst. “I have to tell the other guys if I kick someone out, It’s just the rules,” he started explaining but MJ tuned out and put his face in his hands. He let out a low moan.

~~~

Eunwoo and MJ rode up in the elevator in awkward silence, Eunwoo standing by the buttons and MJ slumped down onto the floor. He rolled his head over to face Eunwoo slowly.

“Eunwooo, I’m sowry,” he moaned.

“It’s nothing MJ, It’s- Myungjun you got to be more assertive,” Eunwoo mumbled.

“I’m sowry…” MJ repeated into the elevator corner.

“I just… ugh.” Eunwoo thought it was better to not say anything, closed his mouth, and looked at the wall in silence. MJ looked up at Eunwoo with large, watery eyes, like a puppy if puppies could get drunk.

“Do you hate me?”

Eunwoo sighed, and rubbed his tired eyes. “I don’t hate you MJ, I’m just frustrated okay? This is like the third time this year you’ve backed yourself into some guy problems because you can’t just tell someone that you’re not interested.” He shouldn’t snap at MJ, Eunwoo though shamefully, but he couldn’t help it right now. His mood was sour.

MJ was a sweet guy. He was short, bright, likeable, and he laughed at everyone's jokes, but that tended to attract the wrong attention from guys and girls who thought that meant he liked them. He was older than Eunwoo, but somehow Eunwoo felt like he still had to take care of him. He could barely entertain the thought of what could happen to MJ if he just hung him out to dry. 

“…did you find the hot cat guy?” MJ mumbled while playing with a bit of loose thread on his bloody scrubs.

Eunwoo could feel his face heating up. From embarrassment or shame he wasn’t sure. “Yes.”

“Was he as hot close up?”

“…Yes.” Eunwoo mumbled. The ‘obviously’ was implied. That type of hot doesn't just fade away with closer proximity. If anything, it was amplified, with his cute eye smiles and red lips and the way his voice lilted when he smiled and talked at the same time.

“…did you fu-”   
  
“Does it look like I did?” said Eunwoo dryly, swinging his head to look down at MJ. 

MJ looked back at the elevator floor, lips pressed shut into a thin line. “Right. Guess not.”

Eunwoo dragged MJ out of the elevator as the doors dinged, and swiped his card to the dormitories with a  _ be-be-beep!  _ The hallways was crisp, boring and white, with grey floors and black doors lined down to the end of the hall and back. MJ’s door had a minimal effort printout that read “ROOM ADVISOR” but that was it. The Halloween spirit was absolutely abysmal.

Eunwoo’s room was about one door closer than MJ’s so he dragged MJ into his dorm. He figured it was best to just let MJ spend the night in his room than to leave him all alone.

MJ was sniffling a bit as Eunwoo laid him down on his couch, hoping MJ’s fake blood had all dried up and wouldn’t stain his furniture. Letting him go, he noticed MJ’s cheeks were wet. Eunwoo sighed and crouched on the floor next to MJ’s head. He couldn’t be angry with MJ, he thought as he patted MJ’s hair. MJ let out a long shuddering breath and covered his face with his arms. Eunwoo left to go get a spare blanket for MJ and to tuck him in.

“MJ, I’m sorry I was short with you, you don’t deserve that,” Eunwoo said, feeling compelled to apologize. He fluffed out a blue fleece blanket and draped it over MJ.  

“No, I dooo,” he groaned, drawing out the ‘ooo’ in do. MJ pulled the blanket over his head and rubbed his face with it, then rolled over to his side. Eunwoo and MJ sat like that for a few seconds, MJ just breathing heavily before he flipped the blanket off his face and looked at Eunwoo.

“I didn’t block him immediately you know,” he mumbled. “I told you I did but I didn’t.”

“Who? Michael?”

“Yeah. We actually talked for a few weeks but he kept getting… weird. So I deleted his number a few weeks later.”

Eunwoo rubbed circles on his back, trying to be comforting. “Hey, it’s okay MJ,” he soothed. “You were feeling bad after you got dumped, it was understandable. That’s why we went to the amusement park in the first place remember?”

MJ groaned into his hands. “I think I knew Michael liked me but I never turned him down. Eughgh why did I do that? Fuck. God, why did I drink so much… I was so nervous today, I shouldn’t have been so nervous,” he rambled. Eunwoo pat his back, not pressing him for answers. MJ stuffed his face into a pillow and tried to relax his breathing.

When he thought MJ had fallen asleep, Eunwoo got up to go to his room. Shooting pain tickled up his knees from crouching so long as he hobbled into his room.

Despite losing track of Moonbin, Eunwoo was relieved to lay back in his own bed. He crawled onto his bed, didn’t undress, but just laid down over his sheets staring up at the ceiling. He tried not to look at the clock and tried to unbusy his thoughts. Eunwoo was tired, but his mind still thrummed as he laid supine. What if Moonbin was still shuffling around the lounge room, waiting for Eunwoo to come back? Him with his hopeful eyes and puppy-cat ear headbands. Eunwoo took a second to suppress his feeling of guilt.

His bedroom door suddenly made a loud  _ thump _ . MJ’s voice cried out from the other side. Eunwoo quickly jumped of bed to see what was the matter and threw the door open. MJ was on the ground in front of his door, holding his nose in pain, eyes watering.

“MJ? Did you run into my door?”

“Mrou godda ged deh myehbee” MJ said holding his nose, his voice hoarse and nasal.

“What?”

“Myaybe. Myehbeh Thdana”

“Maybe? Maybe Ddana?” Eunwoo said confused. He gasped. “ _ Sanha? _ You mean baby Sanha?” Eunwoo said frantically, going to grab MJ. He had completely forgotten about Sanha over the course of the night. 

MJ’s head lolled back and forth in Eunwoo’s grasp. “I tolbd Sanha’s mom I’de drive him home.”

“They why did you get wasted?” Eunwoo screamed.

“Ughehgh, pleab thob thaking me, you’re going do mabke me throw up again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to rework this chapter a lot because MJ kept coming off as too unlikeable. If you read this and thought MJ wasn't (too?) unlikeable, then I did it. If not... eughghghhh whoops. I'm sorry. I had written out the chapter very true to form the first pass through, but rereading it it waaaaaas kinda shit. If you remember in the first chapter notes I said MJ in my dream was actually someone I know in real life? Poor decision in hindsight. I guess the fact that I’m not actually friends with the person in my original dream that I replaced MJ with is sign enough that that person was kinda annoying?? 
> 
> Wish there was more Rocky. I loved writing Rocky. There's a scene that didn't fit that well so I took it out, where Rocky lists off a bunch of K-Drama characters that he’s comparing himself and Moonbin to because he’s trying to explain his and Moonbin's friendship to Eunwoo. It was pretty funny though. Maybe I’ll find a way to use it in the future.


	4. Car Talk/Cat Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 was pretty angsty, but this Chapter 4 is going to be par-for-the-course Halloweeny. I had this chapter done before I finished chapter 3, it came out much easier than that chapter. Because of that, looks like it's a two chapter type of day! I'm glad I'm finally posting it, but I'm also aware that this means I probably won't have the rest of it finished by October 31st. :( Hopefully you'll still be in the mood to read this Halloweeny fic in November.

Oh my god Eunwoo was such a failure. He was just supposed to collect donations all day and he failed at that, he was supposed to kick those underage kids out of the party and he failed at that, and he was supposed to get cat guy’s number and he failed at that! And now he was quickly descending the stairwell with MJ’s car keys looped through his finger, stuffed in the pocket of his biggest, warmest hoodie, frantically hypothesizing where Sanha and his bad-influence friends could possibly be. He silently pleaded that they were still be in the building. If they wandered off somewhere else it was possible that he would never find them. He hoped nothing bad happened to them. 

As he got closer and closer to the first floor, the muffled party music got louder and louder. He threw the first floor door open, surprising some costumed party-goers at the same time. 

"Cha Eunwoo?” someone stopped him. It was a senior on the soccer team who recognized him, a tall, quiet student with thick, black hair. To his surprise, he was dressed up as a magical girl. “What are you doing here?” he inquired quietly.

“Have you seen a guy with cotton candy pink hair and devil horns?” Eunwoo said frantically. His soccer mate looked taken aback, but shook his head. Eunwoo passed him as he waded through the crowd of people for the third time today. It was impossible to see anything from his point of view, so Eunwoo quickly made his way to the foyer. The foyer had the highest vantage point, the staircase. The staircase led up to the second floor, but since the frat was only allowed the first floor it technically led nowhere. All the doors up there were locked except for the bathrooms.

Despite that the grand staircase had limited-to-no use, there were a bunch of people crowded on it, just talking. The guy in the purple suit with skull make-up, Jinjin, was standing on the halfway point on the staircase, peering into the crowd as if he was looking for someone. When his eyes roamed over Eunwoo, who was steadily making his way over to him, he broke out into a smile.

“Hey, Mr. President Cha Eunwoo is here! Good Morning America-a-a,” Jinjin said, undulating his voice goofily at the end. It was hard to believe this beagle of a human being tried to fight someone a whole head and a half taller than him by the punch bowl less than an hour ago.

“Hey… Jinjin right? Have you seen a kid with light pink hair and devil horns?” Eunwoo said, cutting straight to the chase. Jinjin shook his head. “Nope. Why? Are you looking for him?”

“He’s a high schooler, I’ve got to take him home.”

“Aw Mr. President, don’t worry, this sort of thing happens all the time,” Jinjin laughed. He cut his laugh off suddenly, remembering who Eunwoo was. “Oops. Forget I said that.” Eunwoo rolled his eyes and ignored it.

“What about a guy with permed hair and dots drawn on his forehead?”

“Um… no I don’t think I remember any guys dressed as a deer this year.”

“He wasn’t a deer, he was- nevermind. What about a guy with a middle-part, with one side of his hair dyed black and one side dyed blonde?”

To his surprise Jinjin nodded vigorously. “Oh yeah! Bobby right? I think he’s over there.” he pointed from his vantage point across the room to some a small circle of people talking about something. He couldn’t see near as clearly as Jinjin could, but through the bobbing heads of people he thought he glimpsed the blonde/black hair of Sanha’s friend.

“Thanks!” Eunwoo waved, MJ’s keys jangling around his index finger. However when he made to leave when Jinjin called after him.

“Hey Eunwoo! Whose car keys are those?”

“It’s my RA’s, Myungjun’s.”

Jinjin brightened up. “Myungjun! You know MJ? Where is he?”

Eunwoo was surprised this guy knew MJ. “He’s resting up on the sixth floor right now... he’s not feeling good.”

“Oh,” Jinjin drooped just as quickly as he brightened up. “But hey, you said you needed to drop those teenagers off,” Jinjin pointed down at the keys in Eunwoo’s hands. “You can drive stick?”

Eunwoo most certainly could not. “No?”

“You can’t? I can’t drive a manual either, but doesn’t MJ drive a manual?” He does? He thought back to the time they drove to the amusement park together. Eunwoo had sat in the passenger seat but all he remembered was talking about MJ’s AUX to cassette player converter, and then arguing over music. “Yeah, I’m 90% sure MJ drives stick. ”

Crap. Crap, crap, crap. What should he do? Wait, Sanha and his friends had to have come here in a car right? Right, Sanha took his mom’s car. He could just borrow Sanha’s mom’s car. The he could get rid of those high schoolers from the frat party, deliver Sanha back to his mom, and save MJ’s reputation with his aunt.

Eunwoo exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding. This was fine.

~~~

This was not fine. “Sorry, I don’t know where he ran off too,” a guy dressed as Cinderella told Eunwoo. “He was seriously here a few minutes ago, like, on his phone and stuff, but he sped off. I don’t know where.” No sight of Mino, no sight of Sanha, and an awkward exchange with some girl dressed as Cruella De Ville. He shuffled around the first floor, checking each room once, then twice, then three times. He knew they couldn’t have left the building because he had talked to a few people who had seen them recently, he just couldn’t find them. 

Rounding the corner into the beer pong room for the fourth time. The designated beer pong room was by far the worst room in the building, as it was the old printer/mailroom, tables now covered in red plastic cups, and was sticky to touch. He bent his head to step down, when he ran right into someone in a familiar black turtleneck rounding the corner to go up the stairs. He yelped as they collided into each other, Eunwoo sticking his hands out, sliding across the wall trying to grab something to no avail as they both crashed to the ground. The crowd of people playing beer pong jeered at their little fall but Eunwoo could hardly pay attention to that when faced with what was ahead of him. Beneath him.

“Eunwoo!” Moonbin said. He looked surprised. He quickly stood up, disentangling himself from the pile, leaving his tail on the ground as he stood up.

“Bin! I-” he looked down at the little black tail whose swaying had caught his eye when he first snuck a peek at Moonbin. The back had been ripped out, caught on the bulletin board when they fell. “Oh no…”

Moonbin took it back and tried to give him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, it was just safety pinned.”

Eunwoo tried to return the smile just as Moonbin’s slid off his face. He looked away, holding his tail in his hands. “I thought you left! I- um,” he looked around awkwardly, trying to avoid looking Eunwoo in the eyes. His cheeks turned red. “I waited for you, um, over there… and...” he exhaled, long and shuddering, picking his words carefully. “You… never showed up?” He looked up at Eunwoo, eyes full of questions he wasn’t sure he wanted answered yet.

“No, no I meant to show up! I got the drinks and I was coming back and I ran into my old friend and he- my friend he was having some problems, I had to go take care of that.”

Moonbin was looking at the floor and politely nodding, but his motion was a little stilted, a little robotic. He was listening, but he wasn’t sure if Moonbin actually believe him or not. “I really mean it! I- I feel like-” he desperately gestured with his hands as he struggled for the words, when he felt something touch his forehead. It was Moonbin placing the dog headband back on Eunwoo’s head.

“Here,” he gently snuggled it behind Eunwoo’s ears. “I never got to give it back.” Eunwoo looked back up at Moonbin, touched, but also worried. If Moonbin had kept the headband he could’ve used it as in back to him later. He gave it back to him… did that mean he wasn’t interested?

“Moonbin I-”

“It’s okay Eunwoo,” Moonbin had the most understanding, softest smile on his face. you don’t have to try to make me feel better,” he said gently.

Eunwoo wanted to scream. No, he really, really liked him. He wanted to ask for Moonbin’s number. He really wanted to ask for Moonbin’s number. He-

“H-Have you seen a guy with pink hair and devil horns?” Eunwoo screamed at himself. He had pulled out again, chickened out last minute.

To his surprise Moonbin made a little light noise. “I think so! Cute piggy pink hair? Red devil horns? Tiny little trident?”

Eunwoo gasped. “Yes! Yes, have you seen him?”

“He’s throwing up in the girls bathroom!”

~~~

Eunwoo muttered to himself as he and Moonbin walked straight into the second floor girl’s bathroom. “How could I let this happen? Sanha’s hanging out with some punks now? They can't be good role models, just- just look at what they were wearing!”

“They were wearing halloween costumes. They don’t have to dress up as good role models on Halloween,” Moonbin laughed. His eyes were still warm, but there was something different in the way he looked at Eunwoo.

There was no one else in the bathroom except for the last stall, where it was locked but retching could easily be heard from within. Eunwoo gave a look to Moonbin, which was supposed to be interpreted as  _ be quiet _ , but Moonbin interpreted as  _ walk to the last stall and kick it in. _ Mino screamed as the door banged open, revealing him and Bobby crouched around the toilet, and  Sanha who was hugging the rim like a lifesaver.

“They’re here!” Moonbin yelled.

“Sanha, I’m driving you guys home-  _ what the fuck? _ How much did you drink?” Sanha was retching just like MJ was a few hours ago when threw up in that potted plant.

“He only had one cup,” Mino claimed from the toilet bowl. Eunwoo wasn’t sure if he bought it, but it was believable. Sanha was genetically predisposed to be a lightweight.

“Where’s your mom’s car keys?”

Sanha patted his pockets. “Shit. I lost them.”

“You lost them?” Bobby now said, looking to Sanha. “Like, where?”

“I don’t know, maybe at the apple thing? Or by the fire escape?”

Mino leaned in to whisper to Bobby. “So, that means like, everywhere we’ve been this whole day?” Eunwoo rubbed his face, frustrated again. Fuck.

Moonbin was looking over as Eunwoo, as if he was trying to catch his eye. Eunwoo flushed. “What?”

“I have a car.”

Eunwoo took his hands off his face. “You do?”

“The state recognizes foreign licenses, so yeah I drive around sometimes. It’s an automatic.”

Eunwoo wanted to accept Moonbin’s offer right then and there, but he made himself pause. “What about your friend? With the ashy hair?”

“Rocky lives on campus, he can catch the shuttle.”

Eunwoo wasn’t sure. He liked Moonbin, but those long car rides together were making him nervous. What if something went wrong? There was something off between him and Eunwoo now. Then again, he could use the opportunity to try to clear up any misunderstandings between him and Moonbin. “How far away is it? Can you fit all five of us?”

“Yeah probably. I can go get it, it’s just parked outside.” Before Eunwoo could say anything, the kids butted in saying the affirmative. Moonbin got up with an eye smile, and left the girls bathroom leaving Eunwoo with three kids he barely had seniority over. 

The three of them all looked to Eunwoo simultaneously, as if silently looking to him for guidance. He sighed and pulled a pack of something out of his pocket. 

“Okay, everyone take a piece of gum.”

~~~

Eunwoo was leading a trio of gum popping teenagers out the back door of Cary Hall, into the pitch black night. The three of them were arguing amongst themselves as they walked.

“I just don’t think the gum will get rid of the smell.”

“Nothing can get rid of the smell, the smell is in the lungs. You can only mask the smell.”

“That’s what I meant. I don’t think the gum will mask the smell.”

“Eunwoo can we stop at the Asian Grocery Store and pick up a durian?” Mino asked, turning around.

Eunwoo rolled his eyes and kept herding them to Moonbin’s car. “Gum is all you guys are getting. Now hurry up, it’s past midnight already.”

Moonbin was leaning against his car in the parking lot. Eunwoo didn’t know what he was expecting, but wasn’t expecting to see a red, decidedly unsexy, Toyota Camry. When he saw them coming, he broke out into a smile and waved at them. “Are these all of them?” He gestured to the three shuffling high schoolers behind Eunwoo.

“Yup.” Eunwoo nodded as Moonbin and opened the backseat door. 

“Well go on in then.”

“I think my parents used to drive something like this.” Sanha’s friend mumbled as he let himself be ushered into the back seat.

“I probably bought it from them then,” said Moonbin as he closed the door on them. This left just him and Eunwoo standing in the dark parking lot. Eunwoo suddenly felt self conscious, zipping up his hoodie higher to cover up the punch stains over his shirt. Moonbin turned to Eunwoo, smiling unawares. He handed the car keys out to Eunwoo. “Do you want to drive?”

“Did you drink tonight?”

“No, but I don’t know where Sanha’s house is.”

“Okay, I’ll drive then,” he said taking the car keys. He down at his shoes against the blacktop and looked back up at Moonbin through his lashes. “Bin I just want to say- I mean- I really meant to come back to you earlier-”

“No, I get it. I think what you’re doing is important. Taking care of drunk guys, driving these kids home… I think it’s nice of you.” 

Eunwoo nodded awkwardly as Moonbin gave him another smile and walked around to get in the passenger side door. Eunwoo slid into the driver seat and snuck a glance at Moonbin as he buckled himself in. He had put his cat ears back on and beamed at Eunwoo. Eunwoo flushed. Moonbin was so cute, but now Eunwoo was unsure what his next step should be. Everything had gotten so turned around, he thought as he adjusted the side mirrors and began to jiggle around the rearview mirror, catching a glimpse of the three kids in the back while he was at it. “Hey, buckle up kids.” He heard sighing as the kids fastened themselves in the seats. Eunwoo had a good view of Sanha, who was sitting in the middle. He was frowning. Nobody liked the middle seat.

Another click of a seatbelt sliding into its buckle came from the right of him. He gave Moonbin an unimpressed look as he grinned sheepishly at him. Even his sheepish smiles were endearing.

Moonbin turned around to look at the three high schoolers squeezed into his back seat as Eunwoo backed up. “You three still smell like beer,” Moonbin said, scrunching up his nose. The three kids curiously looked at each other.

“I don’t smell anything,” Sanha said.

“I smell it.”

“You’re lying.”

“No seriously. You smell like a baby. A drunk baby.”

“There’s no way you can tell!”

“No, it’s true,” said Moonbin earnestly as Eunwoo rounded the corner of the parking lot. “Here give me your hand.” Bobby looked at Sanha and Minho for a second before putting his hand in Moonbin’s. Moonbin sniffed gingerly for a few seconds, his nose wiggling like a rabbit’s. “You smell like dollar store hair toner.” Bobby drew his hand back and looked at Minho from across the car, shocked.

“How did you know I used toner instead of bleach?” Bobby said, leaning in in disbelief. Mino leaned in too. “How did you know it was from the dollar store? Did you monitor Bobby’s spending habits?”

Moonbin just smiled and tapped the side of his nose, looking pleased with himself. Sanha pointed at Eunwoo. “What about Eunwoo. What does he smell like?”

Moonbin looked over at Eunwoo who was focused on backing up without hitting the nearest lamppost. After a second, Moonbin leaned over and pressed his nose into Eunwoo’s hair; his lips close and his breathing soft and unbroken in Eunwoo’s ear. Eunwoo felt a full body shiver pass through him and pressed on the brakes jerking all five of them in their seat belts. Eunwoo looked over at Moonbin with wide eyes as the kids groaned in pain in the backseat. All of them except Sanha, who was looking between him and Moonbin with his hands over his mouth and a shocked expression on his face. If his eyes could sparkle, Sanha’s would be glittering like a thousand stars. Eunwoo could tell it was taking all of Sanha’s strength to not make an excited squeak. Moonbin coughed.

“Eunwoo doesn’t smell like anything. He smells like nothing and… spiked punch.”

Eunwoo flushed as he palmed the steering wheel nervously and he smoothly turned into the street. “Somebody spilt their cup on me earlier today,” he mumbled.

“Jinwoo told me that that everything gets stained by the end of the night. You can probably get it out with a detergent pen.” Moonbin said trying to be helpful. Eunwoo self-consciously made sure his hoodie was covering him.

“Who’s Jinwoo?” Sanha asked from the backseat. Eunwoo glared at Sanha from the rear view mirror. Sanha was ignoring him, instead fixated on the back Moonbin’s head.

Moonbin twisted around again to face Sanha. “Jinwoo’s the head of the frat in charge of the party back there. He really likes to go all out. He was dressed as a sugar skull this year, with a glow-in-the dark suit. He missed almost an hour of the party just locked in the bathroom doing the face paint.”

Glow-in-the-dark suit? Facepaint? “Jinwoo? You mean Jinjin?  _ Gang-a-jinjin _ ? Light brown hair? Dot on his chin?”

Moonbin laughed. “Do people call him that? That’s so cute.” He had a adorable laugh, like a little bubble of joy that had just popped. Jinjin was the head of the frat? MJ had a crush on the head of the frat? 

Eunwoo’s train of thought was interrupted by Sanha’s inquisitive voice again. “Are you friends with Jinjin? Are you close?” Sanha asked Moonbin from the backseat. Eunwoo grit his teeth. He had spent all evening getting close to Moonbin just for Sanha to screw it all up at the end. 

“Kinda,” said Moonbin obliviously. “I know him because he’s friends with my friend Minhyuk. They’re both on the dance team, but Jinwoo’s a senior.” He looked back at Eunwoo. “Minhyuk, he was my friend back there. I call him Rocky.”

“No, I know.”

“Oh really? Did you talk to him?” Moonbin looked excited. “I was afraid he didn’t like you.” 

Makes sense that Moonbin would think that.“I think he thought I was okay,” Eunwoo said honestly. He thought back to his all gray clothes and silver hair. “What was he supposed to be anyways? I thought you needed a costume to get in.” 

Moonbin looked at Eunwoo, holding his gaze for a few seconds. “Oh yeah… he was a rock.” 

Eunwoo looked back at Moonbin in disbelief.

“No, I’m serious.” Moonbin leaned forwards in his seat. “Less people celebrate Halloween in Korea, especially in Cheongju, but we used to  _ really  _ dress up for Halloween when we were kids. We even went to Seoul one year to see the parade when our school was closed because of an asbestos leak. Once he was even The Mask, with the yellow suit and the green facepaint.” Moonbin giggled at the memory. “I think he was trying to keep a low profile his first year at college though.”

“Oh… first year?” Eunwoo tried to sound uninterested, but he  _ had  _ spent all evening trying to discreetly guess Moonbin’s age. 

“Rocky’s a year younger than me, but I transferred with him here.” Moonbin said, falling precisely into Eunwoo’s conversation hole. Eunwoo mentally did a fist pump.

“I didn’t know he was younger than you. That means you’re a sophomore?” Eunwoo said trying to keep his tone casual. That mean Moonbin was a year younger than him. One year, that wasn’t terrible at all. If they were dating, when Eunwoo graduated he could get an internship in the city which wouldn’t be too far from campus. Then Moonbin could drive over to visit him on the weekends and they could visit the art museum, try out some restaurants in the area and- Eunwoo snapped himself out of it. That was a long way away. 

He couldn’t believe Sanha could get more personal information out of Moonbin in three minutes then Eunwoo did in three hours. Eunwoo was going to need to append Drunk MJ’s Love Tips™ in his free time. That is, if he’d even need them again. He cast a nervous look at Sanha in the rearview mirror again, hoping he didn’t catch that lull in conversation. Eunwoo saw Sanha’s hand reach up into the front seat and tug on Moonbin’s fishnet sleeve. Eunwoo tried to catch his face in the mirror to gauge what he was about to say. He hoped it wasn’t terrible.

“Do you like older guys?” Sanha loudly blurted out. 

Eunwoo jumped. Ho-ly crap. He wanted to turn around and curse out Sanha but couldn’t take his eyes off the road, not when he swerved just a few minutes ago at Moonbin’s smell test. 

Moonbin looked Sanha up and down, bewildered. “Aren’t you… in high school?” Moonbin said, completely missing the point. 

“I’m just wondering. Do you?”

Moonbin was quiet for a few seconds as if thinking. Eunwoo gripped the steering wheel tighter. Moonbin looked back at Sanha. Sanha looked at the back of Eunwoo’s head. Eunwoo tried to keep looking at the road but he kept stealing awkward glances in Moonbin’s direction. He didn’t think he could hold eye contact for longer than a second. 

“I... guess I do,” Moonbin said slowly. Sanha let out an excited squeak.

“Eunwoo is a junior,” he said excitedly.

“Sanha!” Eunwoo cried out, he put the brakes on, parked the car on the side of the street, and turned around to chide Sanha, but instead was caught in Moonbin’s gaze. He had turned fully in his seat while talking to Sanha and looked Eunwoo up and down. Eunwoo swallowed. Moonbin had him in that gaze again, he had to say something. He had to say something!

“Um, hi.”

At least five seconds of silence passed. Five seconds of awkward silence except the putting of Moonbin’s car.

“Hey, my house is right here guys,” said a voice from the back.


	5. The Sassy Moonbin Mix

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a short chapter, but to compensate I have fanart at the end. Expect the next chapter posted in the next few hours.

Eunwoo and Moonbin drove in silence after dropping off Bobby and Mino. Eunwoo wasn’t even sure if the house they dropped them off at was even was Bobby’s house, but by their hurried insistence, it looked like the two of them were willing to walk a few blocks through their neighborhood than spend more than one second in the stifling cloud of awkwardness that was Moonbin’s car. “Um, turn left.” Sanha said, shifting in the back seat apologetically. Eunwoo nodded as the cat putted along. Moonbin was oddly quiet.

Sanha’s house was the third house in a cul-de-sac of brightly decorated houses. His mom had put big, glowing, spooky eyes in the windows, framing the doorway like a mouth. Eunwoo eyed the decorations as he pulled up alongside the curb. Halloween would be tomorrow night. The last time Eunwoo had dressed up for Halloween was in fourth grade. Eunwoo had been an astronaut, and he had a cardboard jetpack on his back that had a hole cut in it to drop candy in. He smiled at the fond memory as he put the car in park. He snuck a glance at Moonbin, who was gazing out the window at the glowing Halloween decorations. Sanha got out of the car. Eunwoo quickly followed suit, unlocking the the driver’s side door to walk Sanha up to his door in a completely unnecessary gesture. Moonbin looked like he wanted to say something as Eunwoo got out of the car, but seemed to swallow it as Eunwoo jogged up to Sanha.

Eunwoo walked behind Sanha for a few feet when Sanha suddenly turned around to face Eunwoo on the front lawn. He wrung his hands nervously. “Eunwoo, I’m sorry I-”

The two were interrupted up the loud sound of a deadbolt coming unlocked as Mrs. Yoon unlocked the front door. “Sanha! Where were you!” It was hard to look intimidating while back lit by glowing cartoon pumpkins, but Mrs. Yoon managed it.

Sanha looked at his mom, obviously feeling none of the dread Eunwoo was feeling. “Fall Festival,” he said.

She squinted at him. “I thought the festival ended at 11:00.” She didn’t even have to point the the clock behind her for them to know it was far past 11.

“We went out to eat.”

“For an hour and a half?”

“We got lost on the way.”

‘You should’ve texted me then!” She looked surprised to see Eunwoo standing behind Sanha. Eunwoo was trying to control his facial expressions. He had no idea Sanha was such a natural liar. Sanha’s ballsy lies coupled with his absolutely shameless devil headband... he was having trouble keeping a neutral face.

“Eunwoo! I thought Myungjun was dropping off Sanha for me?”

Eunwoo hesitated for a second, trying not to make eye contact with Sanha. Sanha’s mom knew he was an honest man, and Sanha was probably riding on the hope that Eunwoo would cover for him to sell the story to his mother convincingly. Eunwoo coughed. “MJ had to make up an Astronomy lab tonight, so I drove Sanha home,” lied Eunwoo. MJ was probably passed out in Eunwoo’s dorm right now after Eunwoo forced him to hydrate and he put an episode of COSMOS on on his laptop to keep him occupied. “...We stopped at Waffle House on the way here.”

Mrs. Yoon’s face bloomed at Eunwoo’s story, no doubt already accepting it as the truth. “Well, I know how time sensitive Astronomy labs can be.” She pat Sanha’s head. “Thank you for driving Sanha home, you’re always doing the most.”

“It was no problem,” lied Eunwoo again.

“Did he enjoy the festival? You know Sanha used to love the hay maze before he got too tall for it?” she said laughing. 

Normally when Sanha’s mom shared embarrassing tidbits like that, Sanha would whine and try to dissuade his mother from oversharing, but today he awkwardly grinned, flashing glances behind Eunwoo’s shoulder every now and then. Sanha’s mom quickly took mote of this, eyes flicking over Eunwoo’s shoulder for a second,

“Who’s your friend back there?”

Confused, Eunwoo turned around to see Moonbin had gotten out of the passenger seat and was now standing on the sidewalk. He had taken the cat ears off, but he still didn’t exactly look inconspicuous with his net sleeves and all black ensemble. He was poking a skeleton lawn decoration. It rattled and lit up as he touch it, which made him jump back in surprise. He when he noticed the three of them looking at him, he waved.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Sanha’s mom said. Eunwoo squeaked and hid his face.

“Don’t be embarrassed Eunwoo, you’re young! You’re supposed to date!” said Mrs. Yoon, now distracted by Eunwoo’s embarrassment. “I’m just surprised, you always said you were too busy to date.”

“It’s not really like that, I just met him today, I mean, we borrowed his car-”

She began rifling through her pockets for something. “I’m surprised you’re such a go getter,” she said laughing. “What’s his name?”

“Bin,” said Sanha.

“Sanha!” said Eunwoo.

She pulled a 20 out of her wallet and handed it to Eunwoo. “Here. To cover the gas and the meal you bought for Sanha and his friends.”

“Ah, Mrs. Yoon-”

“Ah-ah-ah, don’t worry about it,” she said, pushing his hands away as he tried to give her her 20 back. “Binnie!” she yelled, waving to Moonbin. Moonbin jolted at the call of his name and looked up at Mrs. Yoon standing in the doorway. “Good luck!”

Bin waved back, completely ignorant of the whole conversation. Eunwoo flushed, stuffing the 20 in his hoodie pockets and jogging back to his car. Flashing a glance back over his shoulder, Sanha and his mom both sent Eunwoo a thumbs-up. Eunwoo cringed.

Moonbin seemed to have collected himself since their awkward little car ride, and waved as Eunwoo got closer. “Need a ride?” he joked, and patted the hood of his car.

“Yes please. Um... do you want to stop at a gas station of something?”

“No need, I still have about half a tank of gas.”

“Oh. Well, I mean more like… are you hungry or something? We can stop at a gas station to eat something.

“Oh!” said Moonbin brightening up. He lifted his head up from where it was resting against the open car door. “Sure!”

Eunwoo smiled, nervously clutching the 20 in his pockets as he opened into the passenger side door. Moonbin grinned and slid into the driver’s seat. He waved goodbye to Sanha and his mom as they drove off. Eunwoo grimaced as they tried to gesture good luck signs to Bin and him.

Eunwoo leaned back into the seat as Moonbin pulled off into the road. Another second of silence passed between them. Moonbin coughed.

“Hey, didn’t you say Sanha drove him mom’s car to campus? Who’s going to get her car?”

Eunwoo shrugged. “Someone will find the keys eventually. I’ll send MJ to drop it off when he sobers up." Honestly, Eunwoo was too tired to care at this point. "It’s the weekend. Hopefully Sanha’s mom won’t need it for anything until then.”

Moonbin nodded absentmindedly as silence rose up into the car again. Eunwoo looked out the window. It was too dark to see anything interesting. He turned his attention inwards again, and fiddled with Moonbin's car radio. It still had a cassette player.

“Do you have an AUX chord?”

“Not really.”

Eunwoo noticed a glowing CD had been fed into his radio already. He fiddled with the button curiously “What’s in your CD player?” Moonbin made a noise like he was trying to stop him, but Eunwoo had already hit play.

The first track that began playing was immediately recognizable as the girly pop song that came out long enough ago that it was outdated, but not long enough to be cool again. Eunwoo skipped to the next song. It was that girl group that was really popular in Korea now, just as bubblegum as the last track. It took about 5 tracks for him to realize that he whole CD was 90s pop hits, girl groups, or 90s girl group pop hits. Eunwoo actually really liked the last song, so he let go of the knob and laughed. Moonbin grinned sheepishly.

“My little sister made that mix for me," Moonbin explained.

“Did she really?”

“It’s a good song. And the choreography for it is really challenging too.”

“Can you do the dance to it?”

Moonbin laughed as if the question was ridiculous, but when he caught Eunwoo’s eye the second time he gave him a little embarrassed nod. Eunwoo couldn’t help but smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter count went up again. I'm seriously having trouble reeling this in. If anybody's interested, here's [my Sassy Moonbin playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/aihuaart/playlist/3RfGXhisNWALyRYmiMYVla)
> 
> I also drew something for this fic: 
> 
> Yay! It's kinda funny that even though I wrote this fic I changed some details in the picture. For example, I realized if Jinjin's shirt was purple he'd look too much like the Joker, and that Rocky's shirt needed to be more... rockish. Moonbin and Rocky are the funnest to write _and_ draw it looks like.
> 
> When I finish the fic, I'll resize the drawing and put it on the front page. For now, it's nestled between cnahpter 5 and 6


	6. Younger Guys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A significant portion of this chapter was delayed because I'm bad at writing compliments, so I searched up "Moonbin is" on twitter and got results like "secretly ripped as fuck"

Moonbin parked the car at the next gas station they spotted, a gas station with flimsy orange pumpkin lights on a string and rubbery stick on letters that spelt out “HALLOWEN” on the window. It was almost 1:00 and pitch black outside, but Moonbin didn’t seem too concerned about late night crime, either from experience or from ignorance. Eunwoo trailed after him into the convenience store, hands in his pockets, fiddling with MJ’s useless car keys and gum wrappers, and watched Moonbin carefully inspect each food item. Under the buzzing fluorescent bulbs, it becameclear to Eunwoo that Bin wasn’t really inspecting them for health reasons like he did, but rather for tasty reasons. Eunwoo felt it was his civic duty to stop Moonbin when he began drifting towards the gas station burritos.

“I wouldn't get the burritos.”

“Why not?” Moonbin was already reaching into the hot foods display, poking a toasty burrito under the hot lamps.

“Because they can make you sick.”

“Really?” Moonbin picked one up in his hands and dropped it quickly when it burnt his hands. He blew on his fingers. “They why do people buy them?”

“They don’t _always_ make you sick, just sometimes,” Eunwoo explained. “It’s like playing Russian Roulette with bowel problems and the devil.”

Setting them back down, Moonbin continued his walk around the station, Moonbin stopping in front of a display of colorful papers. He picked one up and spun around to face Eunwoo. “What are these?”

“They're lotto cards, lottery cards.”

“Oh, I see now. They’re so colorful.” He curiously fingered through the stacks of paper. “They have Halloween themed lotto cards too?”

“You have lotto in Korea?”

“Everywhere has lotto,” said Moonbin flippantly. “It’s never this colorful though.” He pulled out a vampire themed card. “This looks like a kid’s game...” Eunwoo unexpectedly laughed. Moonbin faintly smiled.

Ultimately, there weren't many options to choose from, so they ended up both bringing the same type of cup ramen up to the register to get checked out. The cash register was a tattooed student with bright red hair, who lazily rung up both items as Moonbin’s stomach growled. After popping them in the convenience store microwave, they sat at the steel picnic table outside. It was a table/bench combo that were connected by the metal rods at the bottom, coated in chipping red and blue paint, looking like it was lifted from the Sanha’s high school. Moonbin sat down next to Eunwoo under the slightly blue LED lights of the gas station. They both peeled their ramen lids off at the same time. Moonbin gave a warm smile to his noodles as a small cloud of condensation puffed into his face. They quietly slurped their noodles for a few minutes, just eating, but this time the silence was companionable and comforting.

Eunwoo leaned back against the table, and afforded himself a discreet glance at the back of Moonbin’s head from his angle. Moonbin's hair was whorled and thick, and although it was pitch black  Eunwoo noticed he had used a bit of product to make it looked tousled. “You recognized the smell of that kid’s hair product, do you do stuff with your hair a lot?”

Moonbin leaned back against the table too, looking across to Eunwoo casually. “I used to,” he said around a mouthful of noodles. He swallowed. “It was a russet color the year before I attended college, but my high school made me dye it back to black.” He fluffed up his hair thoughtfully. “I was thinking of dying it a silvery-blue this year.”

Eunwoo tried to imagine Moonbin with blue hair. “I think it’d look good.”

“I’ll do it then,” said Moonbin immediately.

“Oh- well, you don’t have to do it just because I said so.”

“No, I think it’ll look good too. My sister’s been telling me the same thing,” said Moonbin as he shoveled another forkful of ramen into his mouth. “Do you have any siblings?”

Eunwoo shook his head. “I’m an only child. You’re sister is she in high school?”

“She’s 18 actually, she’s attending her first year in college.” Moonbin tugged at his shirt collar which had begun sticking to his neck. The half turtle neck looked kind of similar to a cat’s collar when he fidgeted with it like that. He looked down at Moonbin’s sleeves. While the net sleeves looked sexy when he first saw him, it just looked cold right now. Eunwoo looked at Moonbin’s hands clutching his cup noodles, and noticed his knuckles and fingertips turning pink.

“Are you cold?” Eunwoo asked. Moonbin hesitated for a moment, and then nodded, rubbing his hands against his cup noodles. Eunwoo started to take off his hoodie at that but Moonbin tried to stop him.

“Ah, I don’t want you to be cold too though.”

Eunwoo continued to pull his arms out of the sleeves. “We can share the hoodie. It’s an extra large,” Eunwoo said, now draping it over their shoulders. At Eunwoo’s insistence, Moonbin accepted the hoodie and wound its sleeve around his far shoulder. Their arms were now flush against each other’s, as Moonbin shifted his butt closer to Eunwoo’s to keep warm. His fishnet sleeves may have looked itchy, but they were quite soft when Eunwoo was pressed up to them.

“I didn’t know you could get hoodies in this size,” Moonbin remarked, pulling a sleeve closer to him. Eunwoo felt warm as he was pulled closer together. They were almost the same height, and when he looked to his right Moonbin was sharing the same eyeline as him; nose to nose, face to face.

His eyes flicked down to Eunwoo’s chest for a split second, but he didn’t say anything. Eunwoo inhaled quickly, realizing that in unzipping his hoodie, he has revealed his punch blotch to Bin in all its entirely. He felt his face flush, and held his hands over his chest. How could he forgot that? Bin seemed to sense Eunwoo embarrassment and tried to comfort him.

“Don’t be embarrassed! It’s cute! Look, It’s heart shaped!” he said and poked Eunwoo’s belly, tracing the edges in a heart shape. (Eunwoo tried not to let his stomach convulse at the unexpected contact.) “Why would you be embarrassed? I’m sure everyone gets a little stained at the end of the day,” he said genially.

Eunwoo had his reasons to care though. “I just wanted to keep some dignity. I kinda have to be a role model; I’m in the student union,” Eunwoo blurted out in an attempt to save face.

Moonbin’s head suddenly leaned away from him, or as far as he could lean with the hoodie wrapped around them. “You’re part of student council?” His eyes were flitting across Eunwoo’s face quickly.

“No I’m- I… it’s a _union_ okay?” Eunwoo said.

Unexpectedly, Moonbin face turned the brightest shade of red that it had been all evening- even more than when Sanha asked him if he liked older guys- and his gaze slid off of Eunwoo’s face and settled at his feet, his expression cowed. Eunwoo sought out Moonbin’s face, confused at his sudden change in demeanor when he suddenly remembered Minhyuk’s firm warning not to tell Bin he was in Student Union. He was never sure why Minhyuk told him that, but by Moonbin’s reaction he realized he should’ve put more thought into it, as he frantically began trying to fix his mistake.

“Ah! I mean, um, well- yes I’m in student union. But it’s not a big deal!” He said waving his hands uselessly. “We mostly just organize events now and then, and balance budgets and stuff. You could probably get in if you applied.”

Moonbin’s was still resolutely not making eye contact, now looking off to the side, biting his lower lip, struggling to choose words. “Don’t you have to be really smart to get in?”

“No you- well, you do need a GPA over 3.5.”

Moonbin chin was touching his chest now, ears turning red, hands wringing together nervously. “I don’t think I could get in,” he said quietly, almost a whisper.

“...What?”

“I’m not... you’re kinda-” his voice was uncertain and faltering. Moonbin lifted his head up to catch Eunwoo’s eyes for less than a second before putting his head back down. His entire body language has changed. His lips were pressed together tightly. When he finally spoke, his voice was small. “...I think I just realized you’re out of my league.”

Eunwoo leaned in, quickly try to reassure Moonbin otherwise. “Don’t think like that. You’re charming and friendly and you smile well. You drove Sanha home even though you didn’t have to… And you can dance really good. Really good. I was… mesmerized.” Eunwoo said the last part unconsciously, as he finally, _finally,_ caught Moonbin’s gaze again. Moonbin gave Eunwoo a new smile. It wasn’t wide and cheesy like his old ones, but shy and reserved. It was him accepting Eunwoo’s compliments gracefully, but he wasn’t sure Bin believed him.

“Mmm. Can I tell you something?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.”

“Well… you know it’s not very common to transfer colleges. Especially like I did.”

Eunwoo wasn’t familiar with statistics about college transfers, but just nodded anyways, trying showing Moonbin he was listening. “You went to college in Cheongju?”

“Yeah, Cheongju University. It’s a private university, close to where I grew up. It’s where my sister is right now, she was always really smart.”

“Well, I mean you must’ve been pretty smart to get in too then.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. But I didn’t do well when I went there. I was okay at first, but my grades started slipping. Sometimes I wouldn’t even…  Ah,  I won’t get into the details, but if I stayed any longer I probably would’ve been academically dismissed.” He swallowed for a second. “...Or worse, I guess. That summer, my parents said maybe I should go to school in America instead, and see if I worked better with the different schooling system. Rocky was already accepted here at the time, so I sent in my transferral request with him at the last minute.” There was a very pregnant pause as Moonbin wet his lips. He finally just shrugged. “I still don’t know how I got accepted. I just want to you know I guess. I just… I just don’t want you to not know and get frustrated with me or something. You’re really perfect,” he said quietly. He paused. “You probably get told that a lot.”

“I don’t. I think lots of people are too intimidated to talk to me.”

“Really? I was thinking it all night. You’re really good looking in the first place, it took a lot of courage to even approach you. When you didn’t come back after you told me to wait by the tables back at the party… I felt really foolish.” He knotted his hands together, wringing them even tighter as he confessed, peeping a glimpse at Eunwoo through his lashes. “I drove those high schoolers home because it was the right thing to do, but… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping you might think better of me if I did a favor for you.”

Eunwoo took a second to collect his thoughts, as Moonbin waited trepidatiously for his response. He gently placed a hand over Moonbin’s knee in an attempt to be comforting and tried to ignore how distractingly firm it was. “Bin, you don’t have to be good at studying for me to like you. I mean, grades aren’t everything. I think you have a lot of talents that aren’t immediately-”

Moonbin’s stomach rumbled loudly. So loudly Eunwoo felt although he could feel the reverberations through the hand he had on Moonbin’s knee. Their gazes both cut downwards for a second before returning eye contact.

“Um, are you still hungry?”

“No.” Moonbin said with red cheeks. He looked down, as if trying to will his stomach into silence. He coughed. “Um. Please continue.”

Eunwoo flushed, his train of thought officially derailed. “I just think you’re really… nice,” he said, now struggling for talking points. He tried to think back to what was said earlier today, unconsciously remembering their conversation with Sanha. “And, um, you know I like… younger… guys.”

The two let a beat of silence pass between them as Eunwoo’s words sat heavily between them, before Moonbin burst out laughing. Eunwoo laughed nervously as well, unsure how his words were just recieved, when he noticed Moonbin leaning closer towards him, their faces so close to one another, not even needing to tilt their heads up or down as Moonbin crowded into Eunwoo. Warmth spread across their chests under their shared hoodie as Bin gently touching pressed against him, and gently pressed his lips against Eunwoo’s in a long, firm touch. Moonbin's stomach pangs completely forgotten, Eunwoo felt himself open his mouth against Bin's, unfolding himself against Moonbin's wet mouth out of compulsion. Bin allowed Eunwoo to dip his tongue into his mouth, before lightly sucking on it, detaching himself momentarily and leaning back in, fishnetted arms wrapped around Eunwoo's shoulders, to softly bite his lower lip. Eunwoo made a little squeak, Bin smiling into his mouth. When he began pulling away, Eunwoo leaned closer, shakily exhaling, and threw his hand out to grab the far hoodie sleeve and pulled the fleece tighter, mushing the two of them closer together. Bin laughed, but sunk back into this kiss, the two of them pressing open mouths to each other under their shared fleece hoodie.  

There was a loud banging against the window that jolted them out of their kissing, the two of them flying away from each other in surprise. As the two of them pulled away from each other, a thin strand of spit breaking apart between them. 

It was the cashier. "Hey kids, it's 40°F out there, you guys should be getting home now." Eunwoo pulled his hoodie around him, having fallen off Moonbin's shoulder as they pulled apart, stuttering out a quick apology. Honestly he hadn't felt that cold, but it's not like he was the most attentive while furiously frenching Moonbin. They jogged back to Moonbin's old maroon mom car and hopped in their seats. Moonbin looked to Eunwoo, smiling sheepishly, hands on the wheel. 

"Um. It's kinda late. Do you wanna spend the night at my dorm?"

After barely a second of thought, Eunwoo smiled, leaned across the gear shift, and kissed Moonbin on the nose.

"Sure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took out a scene here with the two of them eating ramen in more detail because it was too silly in comparison to the serious subject matter, soooo looks like that and Rocky's Kdrama scene will be living in a draft copy somewhere in my computer. In it, Moonbin basically ended up eating Eunwoo's noodles and there was some dialogue about if indirect kisses had a 5 second rule. 
> 
> Also about Moonbin's college story. Hahaha well... that's me. Not the all the details are the same, but the first year of college is always hard and I don't think it gets talked about a lot. Things are going well for me now, but academic dismissal sucks. Plus, if you get dimissed lots of other schools won't accept you as a transfer, so if you're slipping you gotta drop out before they can get rid of you. 
> 
> Buuut I'm getting off track here. College is a scary part in all our lives, but knowing that other people have gone through the same things as you can be comforting. I guess what I'm trying to say is there's no "correct" way to do it. And also, I know finals are coming up around the time I'm publishing this, so good luck college and high school students!


End file.
